Here is a damning fact about our "free" press: A "swamp rat veterans'" group gets coverage for blatant lies about John Kerry's honorable service in Vietnam and shrub's proven dereliction of duty in said same war gets not a footnote. Hey, yo, Shrub was AWFOL!

The missing year was reported by Walter V. Robinson in the May 23, 2000 issue of the Boston Globe. "1-year gap in Bush's Guard duty. No record of airman at drills from 1972-73"

The reporter based his story on "160 pages of his records, assembled by the Globe from a variety of sources and supplemented by interviews with former Guard officials." He presents the following six pieces of evidence for his assertion that Governor Bush missed a year of national guard duty:

1) Retired General William Turnipseed and his administrative officer at the time, Kenneth K. Lott, said they had no memory of Bush ever reporting. "Had he reported in, I would have had some recall, and I do not," Turnipseed said. "I had been in Texas, done my flight training there. If we had had a first lieutenant from Texas, I would have remembered."

2) Albert Lloyd Jr., a retired colonel who was the Texas Air Guard's personnel director from 1969 to 1995, said he does not know whether Bush performed duty in Alabama. "If he did, his drill attendance should have been certified and sent to Ellington, and there would have been a record. We cannot find the records to show he fulfilled the requirements in Alabama," he said. Lloyd, who has studied the records extensively, said he is an admirer of the governor and believes "the governor honestly served his country and fulfilled his commitment."

3) In May 1973, his two superior officers at Ellington Air Force Base [Texas], Lieutenant Colonel William D. Harris Jr. and Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian could not perform his annual evaluation covering the year from May 1, 1972 to April 30, 1973 because, they wrote, "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report. A civilian occupation made it necessary for him to move to Montgomery, Alabama. He cleared this base on 15 May 1972 and has been performing equivalent training in a non-flying status with the 187 Tac Recon Gp, Dannelly ANG Base, Alabama."

Bush, they mistakenly concluded, had been training with the Alabama unit for the previous 12 months. Both men have since died. But Ellington's top personnel officer at the time, retired Colonel Rufus G. Martin, said he too thought Bush had been in Alabama for that entire year. Harris and Killian, he said, would have known if Bush returned to duty at Ellington. And Bush, in his autobiography, identifies the late colonel Killian as a friend, making it even more likely that Killian knew where Bush was.

4) "Well, then it comes rating time, and someone says, `Oh ... he hasn't fulfilled his obligation.' I'll bet someone called him up and said, `George, you're in a pickle. Get your ass down here and perform some duty.' And he did," Lloyd said. That would explain, Lloyd said, the records showing Bush cramming so many drills into May, June, and July 1973. During those three months, Bush spent 36 days on duty.

5) In November 1973, responding to a request from the headquarters of the Air National Guard for Bush's annual evaluation for that year, Martin, the Ellington administrative officer, wrote, "Report for this period not available for administrative reasons."

6) Bush's discharge papers list his service and duty station for each of his first four years in the Air Guard. But there is no record of training listed after May 1972, and no mention of any service in Alabama. On that discharge form, Lloyd said, "there should have been an entry for the period between May 1972 and May 1973."

In summary, four senior officers are on record as saying that George W. Bush was "not observed" for a year of his national guard service requirement. In addition, Colonel Albert Lloyd, Jr. who was engaged by the Bush campaign staff over a year ago to look into the Governor's record, backs up the word of the four senior officers.

The Bush campaign has given various responses to the press report about the candidate's missing a year of his military obligation..

1) [May 23, 2000 Robinson, Boston Globe] Bush himself, in his 1999 autobiography, "A Charge to Keep," recounts the thrills of his pilot training, which he completed in June 1970. "I continued flying with my unit for the next several years," the governor wrote. [NOTE: this is untrue. GW flew for, at most, two years after June 1970]

2) [May 23, 2000 Robinson, Boston Globe] Bush, who declined to be interviewed on the issue, said through a spokesman that he has "some recollection" of attending drills that year, but maybe not consistently.

3) [May 23, 2000 Robinson, Boston Globe] A Bush spokesman, Dan Bartlett, said after talking with the governor that Bush recalls performing some duty in Alabama and "recalls coming back to Houston and doing [Guard] duty, though he does not recall if it was on a consistent basis." [NOTE: Bush returned to Houston after his "lost year" so this recollection is not relevant.]

4) [May 23, 2000 Robinson, Boston Globe] Last night [5/22/00], Mindy Tucker, another Bush campaign aide, asserted that the governor "fulfilled all of his requirements in the Guard." If he missed any drills, she said, he made them up later on.

5) [May 24, 2000 Robinson, Boston Globe] "I did the duty necessary ... That's why I was honorably discharged," Bush told reporters traveling on his campaign plane to Ohio, according to the Associated Press. "I read the comments from the guy who said he doesn't remember me being there, but I remember being there," Bush said of Turnipseed's remarks, the AP reported.

6) [May 23, 2000 Chris Williams, AP] "I served my full obligation with the Texas National Guard. That's why I was honorably discharged," Bush said. Bush aides provided a payroll document they said indicated Bush served nine days of active duty after returning to Houston from Alabama. [NOTE: No date for these nine days was given but it is likely they were the days required after Bush was found missing for the previous year.]

7) [May 24, 2000 Kevin Flower/CNN] -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush on Tuesday dismissed a newspaper report suggesting he had not fulfilled his Texas Air National Guard service. "I spent my time and I went to the Guard. It's just not true. I did the duty necessary ... any allegations other than that are simply not true," Bush said. Responding to the Globe's report that his Alabama base commander had no recollection of Bush ever showing for drills, the governor said "I pulled duty in Alabama and I read the comments and the guy said he didn't remember me. That's 27 years ago, but I remember being there." Asked about his Air National Guard attendance record, Bush told reporters it was "spotty attendance but I did the duty necessary... I did the time that was required in the Guard."

8) [June 24, 2000 Chris Williams AP] AUSTIN, Texas –– Gov. George W. Bush's campaign workers have concluded that no documents exist showing he reported for duty as ordered in Alabama with the Texas Air National Guard in 1972. They are looking for people who served with him to verify his story that he did.

Dan Bartlett, a spokesman for Bush's Republican presidential campaign, said he reviewed another 200-page packet of documents last week from the National Guard's records repository in Denver.

"I have read it, and there is nothing earth-shattering," he said. The campaign was looking for payroll records that would show Bush reported for duty with the Guard in Montgomery, Ala., while working on the unsuccessful Senate campaign of former Postmaster General Winton Blount. Bush, campaigning in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Friday, was asked at a news conference about his 1972 Alabama service. His commitment to the Texas Guard was adjusted to let him serve with the Alabama Guard during Blount's campaign. "I was there on a temporary assignment and fulfilled my weekends at one period of time," Bush said.

"I made up some missed weekends."

"I can't remember what I did, but I wasn't flying because they didn't have the same airplanes. I fulfilled my obligations," he said.

Expanding on Bush's remarks later, campaign spokesman Ari Fleischer quoted Bush as saying he did "paper shuffling" in Montgomery.

"He thinks it was desk work," said Fleischer.

Bartlett said the campaign is now focusing its attention on trying to locate people who served with Bush in late 1972 in the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group in the Alabama capital.

Bush served as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard from May 1968 to October 1973, primarily flying F-102 fighter-interceptors at Ellington Air Force Base, south of Houston. [NOTE: This is incorrect. Bush never flew after May 1972. He was grounded for missing a required physical.] Spokesman Bartlett said Bush remembers meeting Turnipseed and performing drills in Montgomery sporadically during the campaign and more frequently after the election in November and December.

"Governor Bush specifically remembers pulling duty in Alabama at the end of the campaign," Bartlett said. [NOTE: now it's "at the end of the campaign" which fits nicely with what the "witnesses" say in #11]

The Associated Press reviewed nearly 200 pages of Bush's military records released by the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Va. They contained no evidence that Bush reported for duty in Alabama.

9) [Monday , June 26, 2000 ; Wayne Slater Dallas Morning News A06 ] AUSTIN: After a thorough search of military records, George W. Bush's presidential campaign has failed to find any documents proving he reported for duty during an eight-month stint in Alabama with the Texas Air National Guard.

But a spokesman expressed confidence Saturday that inquiries will turn up former Guard members who can corroborate Bush's having been there.

"He specifically recalls pulling duty in Alabama," spokesman Dan Bartlett said of Bush. "He did his drills."

Bartlett said the Republican governor showed up "several" times while in Alabama, where he transferred from his Houston Guard unit in 1972 to work for the unsuccessful Senate campaign of Republican Winton Blount, a friend of Bush's father.

According to Bartlett, the governor could not recall specifically how many times he reported for duty during his months [NOTE: "months" It was a full year] in Alabama. Bartlett said Saturday that he reviewed a 200-page packet of documents last week from the National Guard's records repository in Denver. He said they largely duplicated documents the campaign already had obtained from Texas National Guard headquarters.

"What it shows is that Governor Bush met his annual requirements in order to fulfill his military obligation but doesn't show the portion of the training that took place in Alabama," he said. [NOTE: he met his annual requirement, excluding the required physical examination, only by making up 36 missed days.]

While Bush was in Alabama, "most of his work was paperwork related," said Bartlett.

Campaigning Friday in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Bush was asked about his 1972 service in that state.

"I was there on a temporary assignment and fulfilled my weekends at one period of time," he said. "I made up some missed weekends."

"I can't remember what I did, but I wasn't flying because they didn't have the same airplanes. I fulfilled my obligations."

In May, retired Gen. William Turnipseed, the former commander of the Alabama Guard unit, said Bush did not report to him, although the young airman was required to do so. His orders, dated Sept. 15, 1972, said: "Lieutenant Bush should report to Lt. Col. William Turnipseed, DCO, to perform equivalent training."

"To my knowledge, he never showed up," Turnipseed said last month.

Bartlett said Bush recalls seeing then-Col. Turnipseed. The campaign aide suggested that because Bush was not a pilot, his commander might not remember him. [NOTE: now Bush recalls "seeing" what's his name. He was required to report to the then-colonel.]

10) [July 2, 2000 Chris Williams, AP] Retired Gen. William Turnipseed, now 71, a commander at the base, has said he never saw Bush appear for duty. Bush, however, says he remembers meeting Turnipseed and performing drills at the base."I was there. I was in the unit," he said last Wednesday when asked about it.

Bush's campaign staff has searched for records that would show he was actually there. They have decided that none of those records survived and they now are looking for eyewitnesses.

11) [July 5, 2000 AP] DECATUR, Ala. -- Two friends who worked with George W. Bush in a U.S. Senate campaign in Alabama more than 28 years ago say they remember him serving in the Alabama Air National Guard. [NOTE: this is untrue. They remember Bush telling them he was in the Guard. They were told by unnamed sources that he was "pulling National Guard duty" one weekend.]

"It was pretty well known that he was in the Guard while we worked on the campaign," said Morgan County resident Joe Holcombe. He is former chairman of the Morgan County Republican Party.

"I remember one weekend he was not at a campaign staff meeting, and we were told that he was pulling National Guard duty."

Authorities said no documents exist that show he actually served on Guard duty while in Alabama.

But Holcombe and Emily Martin of Key Biscayne, Fla., said they remember Bush talking about being in the Guard. "He told us that he was having to do his Guard duty in Alabama while he worked on the campaign," said Martin, a former Alabama resident. She said she dated Bush during his time in Alabama.

"I remember he actually came back to Alabama for about a week to 10 days several weeks after the campaign was over to complete his Guard duty in the state," Martin said in a telephone interview with the Decatur (Ala.) Daily from her Florida home. "We both were single at the time he was in Alabama, and we went out a lot," she said. "I have fond memories of those times. Although I never actually drove him to Guard duty, he told me that he went and there is no reason for me to believe that he did not go."

Holcombe and Martin were paid campaign workers in the 1972 election.

In summary, the Bush campaign maintains that:

1) George Bush did attend drills in Alabama.

2) The records that could back up this assertion are missing.

3) Bush "fulfilled his obligation and was honorably discharged."

4) The Bush campaign will find someone who remembers George reporting for duty in Alabama.

Regarding #1: Governor Bush, who is said to have an excellent memory for names and faces, says, "I read the comments from the guy who said he doesn't remember me being there, but I remember being there." Later he said, "I pulled duty in Alabama and I read the comments and the guy said he didn't remember me. That's 27 years ago, but I remember being there."

Regarding #2: There are records that show Bush did not report for duty. Bush missed two physicals and was officially reported as missing for a year by senior officers. Records show that he was required to make up missed time. In addition, the absence of attendance records in a military that is noted for keeping such records indicates not that they were lost but that G.W. did not report for duty.

Regarding #3: The following statement and its variations have been made in order to deflect attention from the missing year. "I served my full obligation with the Texas National Guard. That's why I was honorably discharged," Bush said. You have to read carefully the claims that Bush "did the time that was required." The Bush campaign says that since George got an honorable discharge, he must have done what was required. The assertion is true only if you include the 36 days of "service" that Lt. Bush had to fulfill because he missed at least that many days in the previous year.

Regarding #4: To date, all the Bush campaign can find are two professional Republicans who say they heard Bush say he went to drills. The campaign ignores the four senior officers and the other evidence that says clearly Bush did not attend drills.

My only question is, why is the media accepting the "arguments" of the Bush propagandists rather than the evidence that is already available? I remember the articles about Al Gore's "bodyguard" in Vietnam and the allegations that he really didn't "serve" there. The presence of armed soldiers who accompanied a military reporter (Gore) is taken as dodging his obligations. The presence of clear statements that George W. Bush blew off a year of his military obligation is taken as "oops, we can't find the records."

And the media wonders why it isn't trusted?