cannabisnews.com: Did Bush Drop Out of National Guard to Avoid DT?





Did Bush Drop Out of National Guard to Avoid DT?
Posted by CN Staff on February 06, 2004 at 07:49:34 PT
By Eric Boehlert
Source: Salon.com
One of the persistent riddles surrounding President Bush's disappearance from the Texas Air National Guard during 1972 and 1973 is the question of why he walked away. Bush was a fully trained pilot who had undergone a rigorous two-year flight training program that cost the Pentagon nearly $1 million. And he has told reporters how important it was to follow in his father's footsteps and to become a fighter pilot. Yet in April 1972, George W. Bush climbed out of a military cockpit for the last time. He still had two more years to serve, but Bush's own discharge papers suggest he may have walked away from the Guard for good. 
It is, of course, possible that Bush had simply had enough of the Guard and, with the war in Vietnam beginning to wind down, decided that he would rather do other things. In 1972 he asked to be transferred to an Alabama unit so he could work on a Senate campaign for a friend of his father's. But some skeptics have speculated that Bush might have dropped out to avoid being tested for drugs. Which is where Air Force Regulation 160-23, also known as the Medical Service Drug Abuse Testing Program, comes in. The new drug-testing effort was officially launched by the Air Force on April 21, 1972, following a Jan. 11, 1972, directive issued by the Department of Defense. That initiative, in response to increased drug use among soldiers in Vietnam, instructed the military branches to "establish the requirement for a systematic drug abuse testing program of all military personnel on active duty, effective 1 July 1972." It's true that in 1972 Bush was not on "active" duty: His Texas Guard unit was never mobilized. But according to Maj. Jeff Washburn, the chief of the National Guard's substance abuse program, a random drug-testing program was born out of that regulation and administered to guardsmen such as Bush. The random tests were unrelated to the scheduled annual physical exams, such as the one that Bush failed to take in 1972, a failure that resulted in his grounding. The 1972 drug-testing program took months, and in some cases years, to implement at Guard units across the country. And the percentage of guardsmen tested then was much lower than today's 40 percent rate. But as of April 1972, Air National guardsmen knew random drug testing was going to be implemented. During the 2000 campaign, when Bush's spokesman was asked about the possibility of Bush facing a drug test back in 1972, the spokesman told the Times of London that Bush "was not aware of any [military] changes that required a drug test." Still, at the time when Bush, perhaps for the first time in his life, faced the prospect of a random drug test, his military records show he virtually disappeared, failing for at least one year to report for Guard duty. White House officials insist that if Bush missed any weekend Guard drills in 1972, he made up for them during the summer of 1973. If this is true, he would have been vulnerable to random drug tests during his makeup days. But again, Bush's own discharge papers fail to conclusively back up his claim that he performed Guard service in 1973. "Nobody ever saw him" serving in 1973, notes author James Moore, whose upcoming book, Bush's War for Re-election," will detail Bush's military record. "Not a single soul has come forward to say, 'I remember the summer of '73 when I did Guard training with George Bush, the future president of the United States.'" Moore notes that Bush's discharge papers make no reference to service in 1973. The last entry in Bush's papers are for April 1972. Also, if Bush had served in 1973, there would have to be an Officer Effectiveness Rating for that year in his military file. There is not. Nonetheless, in late 1973 Bush received an honorable discharge in order to attend Harvard Business School. During the early stages of his 2000 campaign for president, Bush was dogged by questions of whether he ever used cocaine or any other illegal substance when he was younger. Bush refused to fully answer the question, but in 1999 he did issue a blanket denial insisting he had not used any illegal drugs during the previous 25 years, or since 1974. Bush refused to specify what "mistakes" he had made before 1974. Perhaps realizing that explanation pointed reporters toward possible drug use during his time as a guardsman, Bush insisted he hadn't taken any drugs while serving in the Texas Air National Guard, between 1968 and 1974. "I never would have done anything to jeopardize myself. I got airborne and I got on the ground very successfully," he told reporters on Aug. 19, 1999. But today we know that for his last 18 months in the Guard, from April 72 to late '73, Bush didn't have to get airborne, because he simply quit flying. Moreover, if Bush in fact took no drugs at all after 1968, that would mean his drug use, if any, stopped at age 22 -- an unusual age to swear off recreational substances for someone with the partying reputation Bush had at that time. Unanswered questions continue to swirl around Bush's Guard service in part because he refuses to release the full contents of his military records.Note: The young pilot walked away from his commitment in 1972 -- the same year the U.S. military implemented random drug tests. Complete Title: Did Bush Drop Out of The National Guard to Avoid Drug Testing?Source: Salon.com (US Web)Author: Eric BoehlertPublished: February 6, 2004 Copyright: 2004 Salon.comWebsite: http://www.salon.com/Contact: salon salonmagazine.comCannabisNews Justice Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/justice.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by kaptinemo on February 07, 2004 at 05:56:46 PT:
Powell: "An' all dose peoples dat be raggin'
on Massa Bush, dey shou'd be shuddup!"Powell might have had my respect at one time, but since he made that tissue-of-lies speech at the UN, he's beneath contempt. I wouldn't waste a dollop of saliva for a good spit on him...Disgusting that THAT (long string of Service related epithets too scortching to print) wore MY Army's greens.
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Comment #8 posted by The GCW on February 06, 2004 at 21:52:58 PT
War aint no theater, sir.
Powell Says Iraq Arms Furor Getting on His Nerveshttp://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20040207/ts_nm/iraq_powell_dcIt makes it sound like they think there should be some special respect for a President who is at war... but right now it's the war stupid... 
 
Powell Says Iraq Arms Furor Getting on His Nerves  
 
 "Let's get on to the issues of the day and not reach back for these kinds of scurrilous attacks, especially against a commander-in-chief who is fighting wars right now in active theaters in Afghanistan and in Iraq and on the global war against terrorism."
 
 If it's getting on Powels nerves, imagine Bush's. 
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on February 06, 2004 at 10:10:39 PT
Something I Saved That Seems Relevant
I try to keep things that I find interesting.http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/dui.jpghttp://www.freedomtoexhale.com/cc.htmhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread3342.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by Virgil on February 06, 2004 at 10:03:47 PT
Bush and Adult delinquency
Yes, Bush failed to meet his duty by flying a giant toy. His delinquency would go on to make Houston the most polluted city in the country and put a real ruin on Texas. His delinquency would carry on to be a puppet that gave the keys to the country to the concentrations of wealth and make the situation official. He would go on to be a war criminal. If only they had tough loved the simpleton, we would have gotten a different puppet.
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Comment #5 posted by kaptinemo on February 06, 2004 at 09:38:54 PT:
One might also ask, "Is the Pope Catholic?"
I remember my own experiences with 'stand and deliver' all too well; my training company at Ft. Gordon, Home of the Signal Corps (Hoo-rah! for the Bravo-2-1 at Brem's Barracks!), forced to live in sh-y circumstances while others on base had decent housing, had won the inter-company competition and as a reward, was allowed to sleep late on Saturday.Or so we thought we would.We were awakened at 5 AM Saturday morning to the sight of MP's carrying specimen bottles. They needed those MP's; we were royally p-d off about this, after busting our arses doing the freakin' impossible. This was just 'ate up' as far we were concerned, "ate up" meaning SNAFU and FUBAR combined.This was 1982, and well past the date Georgie had to 'do his bit'. And guess what? many had false positives for cold medicines and the poppy seed buns they served in the mess hall every morning. Anyone in the military knows that being in close quarters with sick people sends the bugs round and round, and whole companies wind up with coughs, sneezes, colds, etc. Hence the cold medicines. Get dysentery, and they give you opiates to keep you from spending half your day in The Can. So this idiocy was just one more example of bureaucracy making your life miserable...while occasional drunkeness was tolerated if not actively encouraged.My point? None of us on active duty - Regulars, Reservists and Guardsmen - could dodge this because we were under the gun, literally, all the time. Even with legit excuses as we had, people's names went up on the mess hall door, and they had to go talk to the Sergeant Major. When they said 'random testing', they MEANT random testing. We had absolutely no warning; typical Army. Georgie, being a Guardsman in his Champaigne Squadron, had plenty of time to clean up his act...and evidently hadn't. So he had to go to ground. And because of his Daddy's exalted position, never paid the price so many others did.Hence his DESERTION. Georgie is a DESERTER. His silver bars should have been ripped from his epaulets, and he should have been frog-marched to the stockade like any common scuzz. And lest anybody get the wrong impression, some of the best soldiers I ever served with were former brig rats; as Kipling put it, full of 'gutter-devil' and wasted in peace time, as their fighting spirit has to find outlets somewhere. They get 'the bug' as the French Foreign Legion calls it, bet bored, do crazy and stupid stuff, and get into trouble. But it doesn't make them bad soldiers. It was a famous Marine general who said "Give me brig rats, and I can lick the world!" So long as it wasn't for murder or child molestation or theft from comrades (decking a supercilious arse of an officer doesn't count in my book), I don't look down on brig rats; I almost became one (smile). Did Georgie duck the first "Golden Flow" because of illict metabolites floating around his circulatory system? I repeat my earlier rejoinder about the religious predilections of His Holiness.
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Comment #4 posted by Virgil on February 06, 2004 at 09:00:26 PT
They talk about heroin in Vietnam at DEAwatch
At DEAwatch people were suggesting not giving soldiers money while in Afganistan and Iraq because they would spend it on drugs and support the local economy. I have read of CIA involvement in the 1950's and 1960's, but it was just a mention.But heroin was prevelant in Vietnam and of course so was Miracle Plant. What is a soldier to do with the down time when he would really just like to shut his mind down.Dick Reynolds would be R.J. Reynolds oldest son and some say the one that saved Roosevelt in the 1944 with his own money. I think he was official staff himself, but he was a top dog on seeing him elected. R.J. Reynolds launched Prince Albert and was highly successful. That was a fortunate choice as Wilhelm of Germany was the name they were pitting it against and WW1 would have sunk sales.Prince Albert would make him wealthy, but people spitting tobacco everywhere was spreading TB and it would meet a fate like we see with public smoking in New York and elsewhere. Some time about 1913 he would launch Camel. This would be in a new age where the rolling machines were coming and before the days of electicity. Before that people had just rolled the leaf and smoked cigars and of course chewed.The first year Camel would sell enough cigarettes to go aroung the world. The next year it would sell enough to go to the moon. I think 1914 was the year of the golden hypen that saw Winston and Salem merge. Someone you all know was born in Winston-Salem. But the reason I mention this is because it was a secret blend that made it different and there is reason to wonder if it was not laced with cannabis. I have done a search on it, but the blend was a highly guarded secret and there had to be something make it different from the products of dozens of other companies that had their little rolling machines. I have hunted it down on the Internet to find nothing.But Dick Reynolds would be much richer than Bush could dream of. R.J. would have his trust set up so that he got two dollars for every one he earned. Of course he could borrow all the money he wanted and was not going to go without. So he bought a ship and would captain it to Europe and party all the way. When WW2 started he would be a valued captain in service.The point I wanted to make was that R.J. Reynolds and Dick Reynolds sold cigarettes for what I think was 6 cents a pack or about cost. Cigarettes were a valued commodity in Europe and could be used where the German money was no longer good. Anyway, he got a lot of young kids hooked on cigarettes and the government was in on the whole thing.That is what gets me about the drug wars. Here they have a substance that kills 442,000 people and is addictive and they do not speak to the one in three high school students that are addicted. They do not say think of the children as they let parents fill a room full of the most addictive smoke on the plantet with a child present. Now there is some child abuse.But what do they do. Loretta Nall writes a letter to the editor and the helicopters come and the swat teams and somehow find .85 grams of Miracle Plant when she has cleaned house. The police interegate her daughter at school and they try to take her away from her parents. So a search that has no probable cause produces some dust they say was lying around with a THC molecule in it and now she has a rigged trial next week on Wednesday.We have an abridgement of federal powers over the limits of the Constitution with a media the Russian communist would covet. We neglect the proven value to the science of medicine as NIH is given to corporate powers only to trample on people's unalienable rights. The country has gone to hell and Congress says dig. Unfuckingbelievable.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on February 06, 2004 at 08:14:12 PT
I've Heard Many Stories About This Happening
I have heard how it was first hand. Step forward or lose your Honorable Discharge if you test hot for Heroin. Many of the young men were very sick. It was a terrible time for those who didn't cut back before leaving not really knowing how sick they would get. They didn't test for marijuana back then. They didn't have a way to test for marijuana back then just hard drugs.
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Comment #2 posted by Virgil on February 06, 2004 at 07:59:35 PT
Even I do not much care on this
The story was getting in the Guard at all and to such a well connected outfit. To me flying would be the most giant of toys.Now I could see it all if things were hot and heavy and there was need of pilots, but to me the story all along was he was given a pass. It is like saying we took the children on a picnic and Johnny did not eat his sandwich.He got a pass. He got a pass on his drug use. He has been given everything because of his blood-line. I can even get upset about someone getting paid and doing no work, but here had he flown he would have just been wasting money. I see it as the apple is rotten and here they are complaining about it having seeds.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on February 06, 2004 at 07:58:14 PT
Drug Testing Back in 1972
That is when it started. It caught a lot of young men who were just trying to come home from Vietnam. 
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