UNDERSTANDING BUSH’S PAY AND POINTS RECORDS
PART 1: PAYROLL REPORTS
GENERAL INFORMATION AND DEFINITIONS
THE PAYROLL REPORT PAGE AS A WHOLE
UNDERSTANDING TRANSACTION DATA LINES
INACTIVE
DUTY “REQUIRED DRILL” SEQUENCE (aka UTA SEQUENCE)
OTHER
TRANSACTION LINE FORMATS
UNDERSTANDING FINANCIAL
TRANSACTION (PAYROLL) DETAILS
SECTION 2—TRANSACTION TOTALS AND
DEDUCTIONS
SECTION 3—COMPENSATION DETAILS
QUARTERLY
AND ANNUAL CUMULATIVE TOTALS
On
February 10th, when White House spokesman Scott McClellan told the White House
press corps twelve
times that George W. Bush had “fulfilled his duty”, he was basing his
erroneous claims on Payroll Reports and “points summaries” from Bush’s
personnel and payroll files.
The
records were released without any explanation of how they should be
interpreted, and many of records were nearly impossible to read. It is apparently for that reason that no
one in the mainstream press has bothered to closely examine those records to
comprehend their meaning. Such
comprehension is necessary, however, to fully understand the nature of Bush’s
military service as well as to provide the proper context in which questions
regarding that service can be answered.
GENERAL INFORMATION AND DEFINITIONS
One of the more
problematic aspects of interpreting Bush’s records lies in the fact that, on
October 1, 1972, the Air Force Reserve “computerized” its record
keeping with regard to “Service Points for Retirement”. This means that there is one format for
“point summaries” from points earned prior to that date, and another for points
earned after that date. However, the
changes to the payroll records themselves, which already maintained a record of
“points earned for paid duty performed”, were relatively minor.[1] An additional complicating factor is that
this changeover coincided with none of the “annual periods” relevant to
consideration of Bush’s service record.
CALENDAR YEAR
(CY) refers to the
traditional twelve month period starting January 1. Financial records were maintained based on the Calendar
Year. When Calendar years are
referenced, they will be designated by CY and the year (e.g. CY 1973).
FISCAL YEAR (FY) refers to the annual period running from
July 1 to June 30[2] of each year.
This was the annual period by which “satisfactory participation” was
based[3]
for service members like Bush who had a Military Service Obligation (MSO). Summaries of points earned for each FY and
FY quarter were maintained in the Payroll Reports. Fiscal Years will be referred to by the calendar years that make
up parts of each Fiscal Year. (e.g. FY
72-73 is the period July 1, 1972 through June 30, 1973)
There were other
important “annual” periods in Bush’s records, but these are the two that are
required for an understanding of Bush’s payroll reports.
QUARTERS: Payroll reports were compiled quarterly. Unless otherwise specified, “quarters” will refer to calendar year quarters. Table 1 shows the relationship between Calendar and Fiscal Year Quarters.
PAYROLL REPORTS[4] refers to the micro-fiched quarterly summaries of Bush’s pay that were released by the White House on February 10, 2004. These reports record payments processed within each quarter. Quite often, duty performed in one quarter is not processed until the subsequent quarter, and does not show up in the “appropriate” quarterly report. (for example, Bush performed 3 days of active duty June 5-7, and two days of inactive duty on June 23rd and 24th. This duty, performed in the fourth quarter of FY 72-73, , had a payroll “transaction date” of July 3rd, and does not show up until the first quarter FY 73-74 report.
ACTIVE
DUTY POINTS and ACTIVE
DUTY PAY was awarded for “full time” (Active Duty) service/training. Active Duty pay and Active Duty points were
awarded for each day of ”Active Duty”.
INACTIVE
DUTY POINTS and INACTIVE
DUTY PAY was awarded for service/training done while a member was not on
“Active Duty”. (Although there were
many different ways to earn Inactive Duty Points, only those which are germane
to the Bush records will be discussed.)
Pay and points were awarded for each “Inactive Duty Training Period”
(Period).
INACTIVE
DUTY TRAINING PERIOD (Period) An Inactive Duty Training Period consisted
of four hours of supervised drills and training. One point was awarded for each period that was attended, with a
maximum of two points awarded per day.
Periods were numbered “1” and “2”, which (generally) corresponded to
morning and afternoon drills. There
were a number of different kinds of training periods within the “Inactive Duty
Training Period” designation. The
points that were awarded corresponded to the kind of training period attended.
UNIT TRAINING ASSEMBLY POINTS (UTA Points) were awarded for attending Unit Training
Assemblies (UTA)—mandatory scheduled monthly drills that were performed by
members of an Air National Guard unit as a group. One weekend of UTA consisted of four separate four -hour periods
of Inactive Duty Training, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. Members would be awarded four points for
“satisfactory participation” in each full weekend of drills/training.
EQUIVALENT TRAINING POINTS (EQT Points) were awarded only for training that was
authorized because a member missed mandatory UTAs because he was on Active Duty
while that UTA was held.
APPROPRIATE DUTY POINTS (APDY Points) were awarded only for training that was authorized because a member missed mandatory UTAs due to documented illness, personal hardship, or circumstances beyond the member’s control, or to meet the needs of the member’s unit mission training requirements.
TRAINING PERIOD POINTS (TP Points) were awarded to members who were authorized
to perform additional, non-UTA training.
ADDITIONAL FLYING TRAINING PERIOD POINTS (AFTP Points) were awarded to members who were authorized for practice/training necessary to maintain a member’s skills and readiness as a pilot (or as a member of a flight team). Unlike the other forms of Inactive Duty Training Periods, AFTPs were not required to be at least four hours in duration. Flight hours were kept track of, and one point was awarded each time a member had completed four hours of “flight training”[5].
TRANSACTIONS: A
data processing event involving a specific set of data being entered and
processed. This data would include the
type of duty performed, and the dates (and, with regard to Inactive duty,
periods) on which it was performed.
More than one kind of duty/training could be included in a single
transaction, and a single transaction can include information from multiple “transaction
data lines.”
FIGURE 1:
VALID TRANSACTION PROCESSING DATES---SECOND QUARTER 1973
Each transaction resulted in payroll
being processed, and points credited toward a member. Each transaction had a “Valid Transaction Processing Date”, as
shown in Figure 1. The payroll record
example we will be using (from Second Quarter CY 1973) had five “transactions”,
which will be referred to as TRANS I
throught TRANS V. (The “06” is
the total number of transactions for this quarter. This number was always one greater than the number of transaction
dates.)
TABLE 2:--“VALID
TRANSACTION PROCESS DATES, DUTY DATES, AND POINTS AWARDED—2nd
QUARTER 1973
Table 2, in the “process date”
columns, “translate” the data shown in figure one into dates.
THE PAYROLL REPORT PAGE AS A WHOLE
A full copy of
Bush’s quarterly pay records is comprised of a number of different
sections. Most of the records released
by the White House are of incomplete pages.
The report page reproduced below (Figure 2), from the second quarter
(April - June of CY 1973[6] , is one of two of the complete quarterly records
that were released. Each section is
examined below. (Cumulative totals from the Header section will be examined
with the section to which they pertain; the entire Header section is detailed
in an appendix). In order to facilitate
understanding of the data, sections will be divided in order to “blow it up” to
make it more readable. (Codes whose
meaning are unknown will not be listed.
)
FIGURE 2: COMPLETE PAYROLL REPORT FROM
2nd QUARTER, 1973
UNDERSTANDING TRANSACTION DATA LINES
Everything that
appears in the “points grid” and “pay details” sections of the payroll report, and
the point and withholding summaries found in the header, has its origins in the
transaction data lines that appear at the bottom of the page. Each line of this data can be broken down
into four sections. (see Figure 3 below)
·
·Personal
identifier: In all cases,
the first character is a “W”, then there are characters that are
redacted (probably a social security number) and the “BUSH”. (the “0” which precedes “BUSH” was
redacted on all of the other payroll report pages, its appearance here is an
anomaly.)
·
Transaction
details: This is where the duty (and orders affecting
payroll) was recorded. There were
different formats for different kinds of duty, which will be explored below.
·
·Unit
Identifier: The “L9CMPY48”
code which appears on all of Bush’s computer generated records
·
Register: A
six digit code which appears to be broken down into two parts (see REGISTER CODES below).
FIGURE 3—TRANSACTION
DATA LINE SECTIONS
THE ACTIVE DUTY SEQUENCE
The data which appears
below (Figure 4) is the “Transaction Detail Sequence” of first line of data
shown in Figure 3. The data
corresponds to TRANS V in Table #2 (above)
FIGURE 4—ACTIVE DUTY
DATA SEQUENCE
The “active duty
sequence” translates into “three days of active duty service authorized in
Active Duty Order #226, which was performed from May 29, 1973 to May 31st
1973, and for which flight status pay was not to be awarded.” The segment is broken down into eight
sections, five of which appear to be significant.
The most important
of these are the “0529” and “0531” sequences, which denote the
month and day on which the duty began and ended (in this case, May 29 through
May 31), and the “226”, which corresponds to the order number for the
active duty that was performed.
The “7373”
in the sequence “0173731” probably denotes the year in which the duty
began and ended. In the payroll reports prior from 1972, this code
appeared as “0172721” (when the “order number” was three numerical characters)
or “0172725” (when the “order number” included one or more alphabetical
characters[7])
“NFWJLA” appears
as “AFWJLA” prior to Bush’s loss of flight status; “A”s also became “N”s in the
UTA sequence with the change in Bush’s flight status. Thus, there is a strong likelihood that this particular data
point may have designated whether “flight status incentive pay” should be
added. (see footnote 12).
FIGURE 5—“DUTY DETAIL from TRANS V”
The “000000000555”, and “000000000” sequences appear on all active duty orders,
and “1805” on all but one[8].
The significance of these codes is unknown.
The data itself
corresponds to information found in the “Duty Details” area of the “Financial
Details Section” (see below), as is shown in Figure 5.
INACTIVE DUTY “REQUIRED DRILL” SEQUENCE (aka UNIT TRAINING ASSEMBLY or UTA SEQUENCE)[9]
Attendance at the mandatory scheduled
monthly drills known as Unit Training Assembies (UTAs) was tracked within the
payroll system. Missed drills could be
“made up” with either “Appropriate Duty” (APDY)(used when a member missed a
mandatory drill because of illness or other extraordinary “circumstances beyond
his control”) or “Equivalent Training (EQT) (used only when a member was on
active duty at the time of the scheduled UTA). The UTA sequence contains information concerning the dates on
which the mandatory drills were held, and the dates on which the duty (either
attendance at the UTA, or one of the two substitute forms of duty) was
performed.
Each required weekend consisted of four
“training periods”, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. Each of these four periods has a separate
subsequence listing on the transaction data line.
FIGURE 7—THE UTA SEQUENCE
Figure 7 is from the fourth line in the “Transaction Data Section” and corresponds to TRANS III in Table 2. The sequence itself starts with the year[10] (“73”) and always ends with the letter “N”, which probably designated that “inactive duty” (as opposed to “active duty”) was being performed. The four subsequences appear between these two codes.
FIGURE 8—DUTY DETAIL from TRANS III
The data found in Figure 7 corresponds to the
information in the “Duty Detail” area
for TRANS III in the “Financial Details” section. (Figure 8). Note how each item corresponds to a single
subsection of the data.
FIGURE 9a—BREAKDOWN OF UTA SUBSECTIONS
Each subsection can be further broken down,
as seen in Figure 9a. This example (from the
first subsection in Figure 7) shows that Bush was scheduled to perform drill number
one (A) on May 19 (B), that he performed drill number one (C) on
May 19 (D), and that the duty was ineligible for “flight status pay”[11] (E).
FIGURE 9b—BREAKDOWN OF UTA
SUBSECTIONS
The second example (Figure 9b) is from the
payroll report for January-March, 1972.
This example shows that Bush was scheduled to perform drill number one (A)
on March 11 (B), that he performed a substitute drill number one (C)
on March 14 (D), and the duty was eligible for “flight status pay”(E). This duty is designated as “Equivalent
Training” in the hand-written “points records” for that period, and that same record shows
that Bush was on active duty on March 11, 1972, and could not attend the
scheduled UTA for that date.
When points records were still
being kept by writing on printed forms, there were separate columns for “UTA”,
“APDY” and “EQT” which designated whether a member had attended the scheduled
UTA, or had missed the UTA because he had been on “Active Duty” (EQT), or
because of illness or other extraordinary circumstances (APDY.)
The computerized system did
not make that specific distinction. But one can determine if a scheduled UTA
was attended if both dates are the same
within a subsection. If the dates did not match, one can also determine if EQT
was done, by checking the date of the scheduled UTA against the dates on which
a member performed active duty. If the
dates did not match, and the record did not reflect active duty training on the
day of the scheduled UTA, one must assume that APDY was performed.
OTHER TRANSACTION LINE FORMATS
The payroll reports
that predate Bush’s suspension from flying status include transaction data for
numerous of “Additional Flying Training Period” (AFTP). These lines had a
distinct 
format. Each line started with a two digit
year (“71” in the example at left), and ended with the letter “N”
(presumably indicating “Inactive Duty”) Between those two codes could be up to
seven individual six character entries, each of which consisted of the number
of the period (“1” or “2”), a four digit date, and the “A” which is
being presumed to indicate that the member was eligible for “flight status
pay”. Any unused character spaces were left blank. The example above (from the
first quarter 1972 payroll report) shows that Bush was credited for two AFTPs
performed in 1971 (“71”), that were performed on December 10 (“1210”)
and December 15 (“1215”).
The payroll reports
also contain a number of transaction data entry lines that are not associated
with any event that resulted in pay being awarded. These appear to be a record
of orders concerning the member. For instance, there is an entry on the report
page for October - December, 1973 that contains both the date of Bush’s
discharge (“731001”), and a code (“961”) that was used on his discharge papers.
However, these entries are too few, and too varied, to provide any general
guidance for understanding them.
REGISTER CODES
The “Register Code” is a six character
code that appears at the end of every data line. After analysis of the code, it has been found to conform to the
following rules.
There is a three digit Prefix, which
signifying the nature of the data. A “C” as the first character denotes data for active
duty. “B11” appears where UTA data is involved, and “B10” appears when AFTP data is found. (“B”
thus denotes inactive duty). An “A”
appears as the first character where there is a transaction line that does not
reflect pay. (There is insufficient
data to suggest what the second and third characters meant when the sequence
began with “C” or “A”.)
The last three
digits are part of a numerical sequence that occurs within a category (“A”,
“B10”,B11” or “C”) that begins with “001” on January 1 of each year. These numbers rise at a rate of about 30 per
month within each category denoted by the sequence, but there is no direct
correspondence between any date sequence and the numerical sequence found in
this code. Within any given sequence,
the numbers are arranged chronologically (lowest number at the bottom) within
the transaction data area.
It should be noted
that although multiple transactions data lines can have the same register
codes, when that occurs they will all have the same “Valid Transaction Process
Date.”
MEANING OF THE REGISTER CODES
There are two
possible explanations for the data found in the register codes. The first is that it is a computer generated
code related to “batch” processing of punch cards that maintained separate
records for each type of duty that was processed within the batch for each Unit
Identifier (e.g. “L9CMPY48”). This
however seems unlikely because there would be little utility for such a number.
The second, and
likeliest possibility is that it represents the forms used to certify duty, and
was the basis for the data shown in each line.
All duty had to be authorized and certified. An “active duty order” (which does appear in the transaction
line) was used to authorize active duty training, and a DD Form 220 was used to
certify that the training had been carried out. AF Form 44 (and 44a) was used to both authorize inactive duty
training, and to certify participation in the training authorized on that
form. It would make a great deal of
sense for the Air Force to include the forms on which pay and points were originally
authorized and certified, if for no other purpose than to facilitate auditing
of unit records. And the fact that the
register code is part of the transaction data line itself argues that it was
part of the data, rather than a computer generated code.
UNDERSTANDING FINANCIAL TRANSACTION (PAYROLL) DETAILS
The transaction
data lines described above were used to generate the pay that Air National
Guard members received for duty that was performed. For each “Valid Transaction Processing Date” (VTPD) there is a
detailed summary of how much and what kind of compensation was received, what
taxes and other deductions were taken out, and cumulative totals for some of
these items. The dates and types of
duty for which compensation was awarded is also included.
FIGURE 10—“TRANSACTION
RECORDS” & “VALID TRANSACTION PROCESSIONG DATES”
Figure 10 shows the
five “transactions records” that correspond to the five VTPDs shown in Figure
1. (CKD refers to a date found in the
last column on the right, that is (presumably) the date on which a check was
cut.)
Each transaction
record can be divided into four separate sections (Figure 11).
FIGURE 11—SECTIONS OF A TRANSACTION RECORD
SECTION 1—DUTY DATA
FIGURE 12—DUTY DATA DETAIL
The “duty detail section” acts as a mirror
of the information found in the transaction data lines. As in the that data, the “active duty
order” number is specified, as are the beginning and end dates of the period of
active duty[12]. And, as in those data lines, each “UTA”
period is listed separately. (see
Figure 7). The dates listed next to UTA
reflect the date that UTA attendance (or a substitute) was credited.
It should be noted
that “UTA” as used in the payroll records included not just attendance at a scheduled
Unit Training Assembly, but also “substitute duty” performed if a UTA was
missed. Only by looking at the
transaction line data can it be determined if “UTA” meant participation in
“Unit Training Assemblies”, “Equivalent Training”, or “Appropriate Duty”.
SECTION 2—TRANSACTION TOTALS AND DEDUCTIONS
FIGURE 13—TRANSACTION TOTALS & DEDUCTIONS
“680527”
is the date of Bush’s enlistment (5/27/68), and appears on all of the
transactions in this place. The “A”’s,
the “02”, and the “1 770 0
01” also appear in all the reports (except that the first three
transaction in the first chronological record had it as “1 770 0
00”).
The zero amounts (“0.00” and “0000.00”) are of unknown significance, but appear throughout the payroll reports as zeroes.
Gross pay was calculated on this transaction by adding $117.92 for UTA participation, $88.44 for three days pay for Active Duty, and a $4.79 Active Duty allowance. (see Section 3 below). Net pay ($170.73) was the gross pay minus the FICA (Social Security) and FITW (income tax).
SECTION 3—COMPENSATION DETAILS
FIGURE 14--
COMPENSATION DETAILS
The first column from the left in the
“Compensation Details” section of the payroll report is where total “Daily
Pay” by type of duty was indicated.
“Daily Pay” however, would be more properly be called be called “Period
Pay”, because these numbers were calculated based on the number of “periods”
which were credited. Each day on active
duty was considered one period, but a member could have up to two periods of
inactive duty per day.
Bush’s “Daily Pay”
rate during the second quarter of 1973 was $29.48. (See insert below from “Header”
section.) In this 
transaction, Bush was awarded pay for four
periods of “UTAs” (two each on May 19 and 20) and three days of active duty
from May 8 to May 10. (see Figure 12).
Figure 14 reflects the UTA “Daily Pay” (4 x 29.48 = 117.92) in
the top row of the left hand column, and active duty “Daily Pay”(3 x 29.48 = 88.44)
in the bottom row of that column. The
row in between these two was used for “Daily Pay” for “Additional Flying Training
Periods.” (AFTP).
Members who had
“flight status” were eligible for “Flight Status Incentive Pay” when on active
duty, or performing UTAs (or substitutes) or AFTPs. This would appear in the second column from the left, with the
“Incentive Pay” for UTAs in the top row, for AFTPs in the middle row, and for
Active Duty in the bottom row. (e.g. next to the “Daily Pay” for each category
of training.)
When members
performed active duty, they were eligible for a non-taxable “Active Duty
Allowance” that amounted to $1.595 per day (rounded up). The $4.79 (3 x 1.595 = 4.785) Bush
received for three days of active duty can be found in the upper right hand
corner of the compensation detail section.
SECTION 4—CUMULATIVE PAY DATA
FIGURE 15—CUMULATIVE PAY DATA—TRANS III
The three rightmost columns of the
transaction record recorded cumulative totals (Figure 15). “00176.88” ($176.88) was the FICA
wages total for the calendar year, and included only pay for Active Duty. Apparently, Inactive Duty pay was not
subject to Social Security taxes. “010.34”
($10.34) was the amount withheld in FICA taxes so far that year.
“01049.04”
($1049.04) was the cumulative total for wages subject to Federal Income Tax
withholding (this does not include the “Active Duty Allowance”) for the
calendar year and “00186.66” ($186.66) was cumulative Income Taxes
withheld.
“R0000053”
was probably a reference to a data processing “batch” which started at “1” each
year. “730606” (June 6, 1973) is
probably the date on which the check was cut for the transaction. It is always between four and seven days
from the “Valid Transaction Processing Date.[13]” “L9CMPY48” was the Unit
Identification Number.
QUARTERLY AND ANNUAL CUMULATIVE TOTALS
FIGURE
16—QUARTERL:Y AND ANNUAL CUMULATIVE TOTALS
FICA FITW
SUMMARIES FROM TRANS V
|
FICA FITW |
The “Header”
section of the payroll report maintained quarterly and annual totals (Figure 16)
for Income Tax (FITW) and Social Security Taxes (FICA) withheld. These totals reflected the taxes withheld,
as well as the taxable pay, for both withholding categories for both the
current quarter and the current calendar year.
(The “0000000” where one would expect quarterly taxable wages is
probably a programming error.) The cumulative numbers from the last transaction
on a payroll report (see insert—SUMMARIES FROM TRANS V), match the information
found in the quarterly and annual totals.
FIGURE 17--POINTS
GRID FOR JULY 1972 to JUNE 1973 (FISCAL
YEAR 72-73)
For each period of
Active or Inactive Duty, one point was awarded. These points were entered on a computer generated “points grid”
with the days of the month listed along the horizontal axis, and the months of
the year listed on the vertical axis.
Each quarterly payroll report showed points earned during the previous
twelve months, with the “Year” column changing to reflect the year in which the
points had been earned. At the right of
the grid (see Figure 18, below) were columns that kept track of the number of
UTA points earned each month.
There was space for
two characters for each date, and when duty was recorded a code appeared in the
row corresponding to the month, and in the column corresponding to the day of
the month on which the duty was performed.
DETAIL FROM
FIGURE 17
One day of Active Duty was denoted
with a “50”. The three days of
Active Duty training on May 8 through 10th that was recorded in TRANS
III can be found on the grid in the May row, under the numbers “08”, “09”, and
“10”.
One day (two
periods) of UTA (or substitute) duty was denoted with a “22”. The first “2” stood for the first period of
UTA training on that date, the second “2” stood for the second period. The two days of UTA duty on May 19 and 20
that was recorded in TRANS III can be found in the May row, under the numbers
“19” and “20”
When only one UTA
period was attended on a given day, the code would be “20” (for a morning period)
or “02” for an afternoon period). Additional
Flying Training Periods (AFTP) were denoted with a “3”, A morning
AFTP would be represented as “30”, and an afternoon AFTP would be “03”. UTAs and AFTPs could be combined in a single
day, resulting in “32” and “23” coding.
(These other codes can be seen in the grid with the fourth quarter CY
1972 payroll report.)
(The “99”
code that appears in the “31” date column signifies a month with fewer than 31
days.)
FIGURE 18--MONTHLY
AND QUARTERLY CUMULATIVE INACTIVE DUTY TOTALS
The last column of
the Points Grid (Figure 17) contained a total for the number of points to be
awarded for UTA (or substitute) duty for which a member was credited. Each “2” that occurred represented one point
(e.g., “02” represented one point, “22” represented two points.) The usual number of points per month was 4.
(“04”).
FIGURE 19—QUARTERLY CURRENT &
PREVIOUS FY POINTS FOR UTA & AFTP
UTA points earned quarterly (FY) were compiled in the “Header”
section. (Figure 18 shows the
relationship between the calendar year and the fiscal year in which UTAs were
tracked.) The header also kept track of
the previous Fiscal Year UTA points, as well as current and previous fiscal
year points awarded for Additional Flying Training Periods (AFTP). (Figure 19).
APPENDIX 1— THE HEADER
The header included basic information, not all of which can be currently explained. Nor does much of what can be explained appear to be relevant. However, explanations are included in the interest of thoroughness.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
·
DT
RNK---701107: (Date of Rank) Bush was
promoted to First Lieutenant on November 7, 1970
·
CHECK
ADDRESS: Although not all of the
reports include the “check address”, all of the reports have the same address,
including those that processed payments that Bush supposedly was performing
training in Alabama.
·
PAY
DT--680527: This always appears as the date of Bush’s enlistment in the TXANG
·
CUR
PAS—L9CMPY18: Although the significance
of this code (L9CMPY18) is unknown, it appears on all of Bush’s computer
generated payroll reports and points records, and is likely to be some kind of
identifier.
·
GAIN
DT—680904: This is the date (Sept. 4,
1968) on which Bush was appointed a “Reserve Officer of the Air Force”
·
DAILY
PAY—02948: This is the amount ($29.48)
that Bush was paid for each day of Active Duty Training, and each period of
Inactive Duty Training from January 1973 on[14]. (Because
Bush could get credit for two periods of Inactive Duty per day, his “daily pay”
for days spent on “Inactive Duty was actually $58.96 for that period.)
·
CC PD TO
DT—700627: The significance of this
number is unknown, however it does not change throughout the period covered by
the payroll records.
UMA DT--730828:
Likely to be an anniversary date (related to the day on which Bush was
appointed to TXANG as a 2nd Lieutenant [August 28, 1968]) which
changed each fiscal year. The UMA date
was 720828 in the fourth quarter FY 71-72 payroll report, In all the FY 72-73
reports, the UMA date was 730828
FIGURE A-1 PERSONAL INFORMATION IN HEADER
WITHOLDING
SUMMARIES
(Note: The left half of the withholding summaries
appear below. The codes on the right
have have no data in any of the payroll records, and appear to be fully irrelevant
to the discussion of Bush’s service.
The significance of the first entry (W-4 DATA— 99-01-00-0-) is
unknown.
The Federal Income
Tax Withheld (FITW) and FICA (aka “Social Security) deductions data are based
on the calendar year. Although these
numbers are related to data found on the payroll records, they do not appear to
be significant to the discussion.
FIGURE A-2 WITHHOLDING SUMMARIES (FROM HEADER)
UTA AND AFTP POINT
SUMMARIES
This section provides
quarterly totals of Unit Training Assembly Points and Additional Flying
Training Period Points. This data would
have enabled the Air Force Personnel Center to “monitor” by computer attendance
at the mandatory UTAs, as well as required Flight training periods, and to flag
the records of members who were not showing up for the training required of
them.
FIGURE A-3 UTA AFTP POINT SUMMARIES (FROM HEADER)
Each
UTA/AFTP data section is dividing into four subsections, corresponding to
fiscal quarter. Thus UTAS CUR
FY—00-12-12-08 (Unit Training Assemblies for the Current Fiscal Year) shows
that for FY 72-73…
1st
Quarter July-September, 1972 00 UTAs credited as attended
2nd
Quarter October-December, 1972- 12 UTAs credited as attended
3rd
Quarter January-March, 1973 12 UTAs credited as attended
4th
Quarter April-June, 1973………………08
UTAs credited as attended[15]
(The relationship
between the data listed under “DAYS PD” and that in the rest of the payroll
report could not be ascertained. “LEAVE
PD” data remains at 00-00-00, and does not appear relevant to the discussion.)
VALID TRANSACTION PROCESSING DATES
This section lists
the dates on which payroll transactions were processed. This data may be significant, because of
significant differences in the dates of duty, and the transaction dates on
which that duty was recorded from May 1972 onward. Prior to FY 72-73, “transactions” were processed much more
regularly.
FIGURE A-4—VALID TRANSACTION PROCESSING DATES (FROM HEADER)
The number preceding these dates is the total number of
“valid transaction dates plus one”. (In the quarter in which no pay was
processed, this number was “01”.) Each
transaction date relates to a “transaction” in the pay details section, and the
right hand column of each “transaction” has a date that is five to seven days
after the corresponding “valid transaction date”
APPENDIX 2--METHODOLOGY
Although
much of the information in this piece is based on definitions and regulations from
the Air Force Reserve, a great deal of the “facts” cited herein are the result
of careful comparisons of the data found within the payroll reports themselves,
as well as comparisons against information contained in other formats. In those instances where there is any doubt
about the true meaning of any given data, that doubt has been expressed within
the text. (e.g. there is no way, at
this point, to know for certain whether “A” meant eligible for “flying status
pay”, and “N” meant ineligible for that pay. That uncertainly has been
reflected in the text.)
It
should be noted that the data is not 100% consistent with the facts found in
this report. In those rare cases where
it is inconsistent, there is evidence for a strong presumption that the inconsistency
is the result of clerical error. For
example, the payroll reports show that Bush received credit twice for the
second training period that was scheduled for Feb. 13, 1972, and no credit for
the first training period that day. An
errant “2” occurs in the spot where a “1” would have provided credit for the
first training period on that date, and all other records have a “1” in this
particular place. Insofar as there
could be no reason why anyone would have wanted to give Bush double credit for
that second training period and no credit for the first, we must assume that
this was a case of clerical error.
Finally, it should
be noted that many of the numbers and letters found in the payroll reports are
indistinct, ambiguous, and occasionally indecipherable. (Fours can very often be indistinguishable
from nines, for example.) These
problems occur, however, both within data whose meaning is known, and that
whose meaning was unknown when the records were examined. In those cases where ambiguity existed, it
was assumed that if a character could represent a quantity that fit a known
pattern, it did so.