Bush's Military Records Show He Shirked Paul Lukasiak 14 February 2004

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An examination of the documents pertaining to George W. Bush’s service in the National Guard, which were released by the White House on Friday, demonstrate that Bush did not complete his National Guard service obligation.

A memo released by the White House from Albert C. Lloyd, Jr., LTC (Ret.) asserts that, based upon an examination of Bush’s records, "George W. Bush has satisfactory years for both 72–73 and 73–74 which proves that he completed his military obligation in a satisfactory manner." The documents released on Friday demonstrate that, even by Lloyd’s own standards, Bush did not have a "satisfactory year" in 1973–74.

According to the Lloyd memo, "Members of the Air National Guard/Reserve are required to have 50 points per retirement year in order to have a satisfactory year for retirement/retention." Although Lloyd asserted that Bush had 56 points in his final year, the documentary evidence shows that Bush had only 40.

The document in question is the "ARF Retirement Summary" for Bush’s final year. This document was sent to Bush for approval on January 30th, 1974, three months after Bush had been placed on "inactive" status and six months after the last day he served, according to the records. This document, which says that Bush received only 40 points, is stamped April 10th, 1974, and is unamended. It lists Bush as having 19 points for "Active" duty, 16 points for "Inactive" duty, and 5 "gratuitous" points for service. (The documents in question are pages 17 and 18 of Bush’s "2000 Personnel File".)

Lloyd’s summary of Bush’s last year says that Bush received 19 points for "Active" duty, 16 points for "Inactive" duty, and 15 "gratuitous" points for service.

Yet there are no documents released on Friday that have the "15 gratuitous" points for Bush’s last year — the year when he was released from his obligation to the National Guard six months prior to completing his contracted tour of duty.

It should be noted that, although Lloyd’s points add up to only 50, Lloyd claimed in his memo that Bush accumulated 56 points. This obvious error raises serious questions regarding Lloyd’s competence to examine the records in question. No documents examined by Lloyd for Bush’s final year could have claimed that he had 56 points, and it is abundantly clear that Lloyd did not fully examine the record.

The bottom line is that the White House’s repeated claim that "the point summaries ... document that he fulfilled his duties. These records clearly document the President fulfilling his duties..." is completely false. The documents demonstrate that Bush did not fulfill his duties, even by the lax standards set by the White House itself.

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