Bush went on absence sans leave to skip Vietnam war

Democrats have questioned US President George W. Bush’s days at the Texas Air National Guard Service, saying he shirked military duty to go to Vietnam war. While none of the Democratic presidential candidates have directly criticised Bush’s service, some Democrats, including Democratic National Committee chairman Terence R. Mcauliffe, have called Bush’s ‘‘AWOL’’ (absent without leave — a serious charge), The Washington Post reported. However, Toerry Holt, spokesman for the Bush campaign, termed it a ‘‘bogus assertion’’, adding ‘‘the President was never AWOL’’.

A review of Bush’s military records, says The Post, shows that Bush enjoyed preferential treatment as the son of a then-Congressman, George H.W. Bush (who later became president) when he walked into a Texas Guard unit in Houston two weeks before his 1968 graduation form Yale and was moved to the top of a long waiting list. Bush was accepted for pilot training after having scored only 25 pc in the aptitude test, the lowest grade.

In 2000, The Boston Globe examined a period from May ’72 to May ’73 and found no record that Bush performed any guard duties either in Alabama or Houston although he was still enlisted.