White House releases Bush's military service records

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, February 11, 2004

White House releases Bush's military service records

The White House on Tuesday released President George W. Bush's military pay records during the Vietnam war in order to demonstrate that he did not shirk his duty as accused by Democrats.

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The White House on Tuesday released President George W. Bush's military pay records during the Vietnam war in order to demonstrate that he did not shirk his duty as accused by Democrats.

"These documents clearly show that the president fulfilled his duties," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said after the release of Bush's pay records, annual retirement point summaries and other documents.

Questions over Bush's military service during the Vietnam war re-emerged recently as the election campaigns got under way. Critics say Bush missed required drills during part of 1972 while serving in the Air National Guard.

The records showed Bush received 56 points for service, six more than required, in each of the two years from May 1972 through May 1974, and got paid for part-time services. He received pay for six days between May and December 1972, but there were no pay records for a five-month stretch in that year.

Bush transferred temporarily from a Texas Air National Guard unit to an Alabama unit in 1972 while he was working on a political campaign. Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe accused Bush of going AWOL, or absent without leave, when he should have been training in Alabama.

McClellan said Bush performed "equivalent duty" to his Texas National Guard obligations while he was in Alabama.

"When you serve, you are paid for that service...That means he served," McClellan said. "And these documents also show he met his requirements."

In an interview with NBC Sunday, Bush said he "absolutely" would release all records of his time in the National Guard to settle the issue, "if they were still there."

The White House obtained the pay records late on Monday from the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver, Colorado, McClellan said. News reporters who previously investigated the AWOL charge had failed to find records of Bush's Alabama service.

The White House also reissued previously available documents, including a memo written by retired Lieutenant Colonel Albert Lloyd Jr, personnel director for the Texas Air National Guard from1969 to 1995.

"He completed his military obligation in a satisfactory manner," Lloyd wrote in the memo.

Charges about Bush's military service record date back to the 2000 campaign. All the documents except the pay records were released in 2000. McClellan said "it's just really a shame that people are continuing to bring this up."

Senator John Kerry, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination and a decorated Vietnam war veteran, said Tuesday that he had no further comments on the release of Bush's records.

"It's not my record that's at issue and I don't have any questions about it," he said.

Source: Xinhua

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