Putting aside, for just a moment, whether Bush actually fulfilled his responsibilities to the National Guard during Vietnam, the Boston Globe raised another interesting angle today that I haven’t seen explored anywhere else.
In August 1972, Bush was suspended from flight status for failing to take his annual flight physical. At this point, no one’s really sure why Bush didn’t show up for the medical exam, though Salon’s Eric Boehlert has an interesting theory.
Regardless, today’s Globe explains that Bush’s suspension should have “prompted an investigation by his commander, a written acknowledgement by Bush, and perhaps a written report to senior Air Force officials” according to military regulations in effect at the time.
The new questions about Bush’s service arose a day after the White House disclosed attendance and payroll records that appeared to show that Bush sporadically attended Guard drills between May 1972 and May 1973 — even though his superiors at the time said that Bush did not appear at their units in that period.
Two retired National Guard generals, in interviews yesterday, said they were surprised that Bush — or any military pilot — would forgo a required annual flight physical and take no apparent steps to rectify the problem and return to flying. “There is no excuse for that. Aviators just don’t miss their flight physicals,” said Major General Paul A. Weaver Jr., who retired in 2002 as the Pentagon’s director of the Air National Guard, in an interview.
Brigadier General David L. McGinnis, a former top aide to the assistant secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, said in an interview that Bush’s failure to remain on flying status amounts to a violation of the signed pledge by Bush that he would fly for at least five years after he completed flight school in November 1969.
“Failure to take your flight physical is like a failure to show up for duty. It is an obligation you can’t blow off,” McGinnis said.
The Globe added:
The issue of Bush’s suspension has been clouded in mystery since it first arose during the 2000 campaign. Dan Bartlett, a Bush campaign aide who is now White House communications director, said then that Bush didn’t take the physical because his family physician was in Houston and he was in Alabama. But the examination is supposed to be done by a flight surgeon, and could have been done at the base in Montgomery.
Bush’s military records would explain whether an investigation happened or not, which would probably help explain why Bush missed the physical in the first place. All the White House has to do is follow the example of other candidates who served in the military by making Bush’s full record available to public scrutiny. And yet, Bush and his aides refuse. Any guesses as to why?