Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Was Kerry AWOL from the Reserves?

Roland Patrick at Let's Fly Under the Bridge has two good posts today linking to research on Kerry's service in '70-'72 and more documents supporting Bush's ANG service here and here. (Hat tip to Prestopundit)

NRO's Kerry Spot (Post: WHAT'S A RELIABLE WITNESS TO THE GLOBE? [09/08 08:53 AM]) roasts the Boston Globe over its story that "Since the Globe first reported Bush's spotty attendance record in May 2000, no one has come forward with any credible recollection of having witnessed Bush performing guard service in Alabama or after he returned to Houston in 1973." Kerry Spot's comment:

There is retired Lt. Col. John “Bill” Calhoun, unit's flight safety officer who told the Associated Press in February that he saw Bush “every drill period” ; Joe LeFevers, another member of the 187th, who told The Birmingham News that he remembered seeing Bush on base and remembered Bush because of his political job at the time on a U.S. Senate campaign; Joe Holcombe, who worked with Bush on the Blount campaign and told a local paper that he remembers Bush missing at least one campaign meeting because of his National Guard drills; James Anderson, who was a physician for the Montgomery-based 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group, who recalls performing a routine examination on Bush at Dannelly Air National Guard base in 1972; and Emily Marks Curtis, who dated Bush while he worked on the 1972 Senate campaign of Winton "Red" Blount, and who told a local paper that Bush had talked of going to Guard duty on the weekends.

Plus Bush’s dental records, which, the Kerry Spot concedes, only proves that Bush’s teeth were on base on January 6, 1973.

Is there a particular reason that the Globe finds none of the above people a reliable witness?

And where was this skepticism when Kerry was telling his tale of spending Christmas in Cambodia under President Nixon in 1968?

Indeed.

Update: Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has expanded his post on the Bush AWOL story with a quote from The Hill and reader emails. It's here.

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