Well, looks like we can put the Bush AWOL story to bed...congrats, Dubya!

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Key Bush Military Service Files Destroyed

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=4&u=/nm/20040709/pl_nm/bush_records_dc

Key Bush Military Service Files Destroyed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microfilm records related to President Bush (news - web sites)'s service in the Air National Guard three decades ago were accidentally destroyed when the military tried to improve its files, the Pentagon (news - web sites) said on Friday.

Payroll records of large numbers of service members, including Bush, were ruined in 1996 and 1997 in a project to save large, brittle rolls of microfilm, Defense Finance and Accounting Service spokesman Bryan Hubbard told Reuters.

Bush's whereabouts during his service as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard in the United States during the Vietnam War have become an election-year issue, with some Democrats accusing him of shirking his duty.

The destroyed files kept in Denver on deteriorating 2,000-foot rolls of microfilm covered three months of a period in 1972 and 1973 when Bush's claims of service with the guard in Alabama are in question.

[trof]

1. Another place to look.

IRS records.
W*s tax returns would show how much (if) he received in income from the guard.
They do not pay if you don't show up.

[kayell]

2. Repeat after me: It's not the crime, it's the coverup.

[Palacsinta]

3. How odd..........

that I could find out so many details about my g-g-g-uncle's service DURING THE CIVIL WAR and we can't get any info from 1972!!!!!

[liveoaktx]

4. AP was looking for the file in Texas

From the article (link has expired) about AP suing for records.

"Filed in federal court in New York, where The AP is headquartered, the lawsuit seeks access to a copy of Bush's microfilmed personnel file from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin."

Seems like this lawsuit should still be valid, unless the TEXAS Archives stores its microfilm in Colorado. Or an amazing accident happens to THAT microfilm, too!

[Gruenemann]

5. WTF kind of microfilm doesn't last 20 years?

"Brittle" microfilm? What were they using? I have negatives from the 30s that are still pliable. And if-just if-their cheap ass film started crumbling when they were trying to work with it, why didn't they stop instead of continuing until they had crumbled several years' worth of the stuff?

It's just another FUCKING FASCIST LIE!!!

[TankLV]

6. No - it proves that he was an lying, AWOL coke-snorting drunk!

Can't refute it, can he?

[dryan]

7. Sounds fishy!

1.) How come an absolute treasure trove of documents from Clinton's life were found completely pristine by the passport staff at the Department of State -- this was during the 1992 campaign when the GOP was trying to insinuate that Clinton was a communist.
2.) How come not one person who served with Bush has come forward?