Bush Releases National Guard Files

Documents Show He Was Credited With 9 Days Of Service In 1 Year

(CBS/AP)  The White House, facing election-year questions about President Bush's military service, released pay records and other information Tuesday that it said supports Bush's assertion that he fulfilled his duty as a member of the Air National Guard during the Vietnam war.

The material included annual retirement point summaries and pay records to show that Mr. Bush served.

"When you serve, you are paid for that service. These documents outline the days on which he was paid. That means he served. And these documents also show he met his requirements," press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters. "And it's just really a shame that people are continuing to bring this up."

"These documents clearly show that the president fulfilled his duties," McClellan said.

Photocopied payroll records distributed by the White House were not all legible. The White House promised clearer copies later Tuesday afternoon.

Mr. Bush on Sunday authorized the release of his Guard records. McClellan said the latest material apparently is all of Mr. Bush's records.

The documents indicate that Mr. Bush received credit for nine days of active duty between May 1972 and May 1973, the period that has been cited by Democrats as evidence that Mr. Bush shirked his military responsibilities.

A memo written by retired Lt. Col. Albert Lloyd Jr., at the request of the White House, said a review of Mr. Bush's records showed that he had "satisfactory years" for the period of 1972-73 and 1973-74 "which proves that he completed his military obligation in a satisfactory manner."

Lloyd was personnel director for the Texas Air National Guard from 1969 to 1995 and also had reviewed Mr. Bush's military records at the request of his campaign four years ago.

During the 2000 campaign, the media were provided a torn copy of the document listing retirement points earned by Mr. Bush. It was unclear why a copy that is not torn is now available, the Boston Globe reported.

The pay records were not obtained by the White House until late Monday from the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver, Colo., McClellan said. He said the center, apparently acting on its own, reviewed Mr. Bush's records and came up with the pay information.

"It was our impression from the Texas Air National Guard — they stated they didn't have them," he said. "It was also our impression those records didn't exist."

The pay information documented the dates when Mr. Bush showed up for Guard duty, the spokesman said. "You are paid for the dates you served," McClellan added.

Mr. Bush's military record was raised as an issue in the 2000 campaign and was revived this year by Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who called Mr. Bush "AWOL" — absent without leave — during a period of his service when he was in Alabama.

Asked if the records should end the controversy about Mr. Bush's service, McClellan said, "You have to ask those who made these outrageous accusations if they stand by them in the face of this documentation that demonstrates he served and fulfilled his duties."

Mr. Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968 shortly before graduating from Yale University.

Questions have been raised about whether family connections helped him get into the Guard when there were waiting lists for what was seen as an easy billet. Mr. Bush says no one in his family pulled strings and that he got in because others didn't want to commit to the almost two years of active duty required for fighter pilot training.

A central issue is whether he showed up for duty while assigned to Guard units in Alabama, where he worked on a political campaign in 1972.

"There may be no evidence, but I did report," Mr. Bush told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have been honorably discharged."

His Alabama unit commander says Mr. Bush did not show up for duty. In September 1972, Mr. Bush was disciplined for missing an annual physical: He was grounded.

Another question is why he was allowed to end Guard duty about six months early to attend Harvard Business School. Mr. Bush said on NBC that he had "worked it out with the military. And I'm just telling you, I did my duty."

Lloyd has said that Mr. Bush's early discharge was not uncommon for pilots or other crewmen who were to leave soon and had been trained on now-obsolete jets, as was Mr. Bush's case. At the time, the Vietnam war was winding down.