GMontag's Journal: I don't care what records you show me, I want more records!

What a bunch of FSoFs!

Press Briefing by Scott McClellan
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
12:53 P.M. EST

Above is a link to the full transcript of the issue mentioned in an earlier JE.

Here is a timeline of his service.

Here are his points Oct. 1972 - May 1973, which goes to a moronic question from the peanut gallery in the briefing.

Q Scott, that wasn't my question, and you know it wasn't my question. Where was he in December of '72, February and March of '73? And why did he not fulfill the medical requirements to remain on active flight duty status?

Let's take a closer look at what "happened to" December of '72, February and March of '73:

A "regular drill weekend" (today on the Army side of things they are called Multiple Unit Training Assemblies, MUTA) consists of a MUTA 4. Some rules involved with that, but they are watched by the folks who fill out these forms and the commanders who sign them.

In November 1LT Bush performed 8 assemblies, i.e., TWO drill weekends. This is common when making up duty in advance, even today. Gosh, could he have possibly done his December duty in November? Yes.

In January, 1973 he did TWELVE assemblies. Do the math please? That's right, he did three drill weekends worth of duty that month. Thus February is covered with a month to spare.

Oh, we still have March to account for. There you go, he did THREE MONTHS of duty in January, that covered January, February AND March.

April 1973, 4 MUTAs

May 1973, 13 MUTAs (three months and change worth, for those keeping score 1LT. Bush is ahead by two months).

Now, all training months are not created equal. When I was a Guardsman we had MUTA 5s pretty often, so other months did not have the same amount of training time. December was uaually a MUTA 1, Christmas party.

Today, for Army Reserve Component Soldiers anyway, each normally gets 48 MUTAs and 15 Annual Training days. That translates to 12 weekends and 2 weeks of AT.

1LT Bush performed 41 MUTAs in just the 8 months that the Boston Globe allows us to glimpse.

As for that flight physical, I am here to tell you that I have not had one since 1999 and ARPERCEN keeps calling me asking when I will do it. When they get the clinics in line to complete one in less than three visits, I will go do it. Not sure what the deal was back in the 70's when 1LT Bush was nowhere near an aircraft, performing other duty.

I really do like the way Scott McClellan handled this, letting the idiots in the cheap seats go batty asking ignorant questions. Yes, I know it will not stop these idiots, they will still be chanting about "missing duty" or some BS even though the documents are there for all to read, well for those who can read.

It's a non-issue

[buffer-overflowed]

to me, and Kerry's not going to bring it up if he has the tiniest bit of intelligence, but there's a bit of a difference between what Bush did and what Kerry did.

Too late

[Dannon]

Last Sunday, from Kerry: "The issue here .. is was he present and active on duty in Alabama at the times he was supposed to be? And just because you get an honorable discharge does not, in fact, answer that question."

And since the records have come out, he's backpedaled a bit. Yesterday, when he was asked about it, he said, "It's not an issue that I've chosen to create."

I wonder if anyone plans to confront Terry McAuliffe or Michael Moore about it.

Oh so true

[TheConfusedOne]

Bush served honorably, requested an early discharge and has continued to support his country.

Kerry served honorably, requested an early discharge and slimed every person in uniform serving.

All of this attack on Bush's Vietnam record

[pizzaman100]

opens Kerry to attacks on the same issue. Republicans can now legitimately question Kerry's post-Vietnam record, as he has chosen to make it an issue.