- A Republican close to Bush supplied phone numbers yesterday for the owner of an insulated-coating business in the Atlanta area, John B. "Bill" Calhoun, 69, who was an officer with the Alabama Air National Guard. Calhoun said in a telephone interview that Bush used to sit in his office and read magazines and flight manuals as he performed weekend duty at Dannelly Field in Montgomery during 1972.
Calhoun estimated that he saw Bush sign in at the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group eight to 10 times for about eight hours each from May to October 1972. He said the two occasionally grabbed a sandwich in the snack bar.
"He'd sit on my couch and read training manuals and accident reports and stuff like that," Calhoun said. "The pilots would read those so they would see what other guys did wrong. . . . He never complained about coming."
Calhoun, a retired lieutenant colonel who said he was the group's flying safety officer and later its plans officer, described Bush as "a typical fighter pilot -- he was aggressive with his talk."
... Calhoun said he is a Republican but has not talked to Bush since 1972. Calhoun faxed The Washington Post military records that show he worked at Dannelly Field when he said he saw Bush. One of the sheets is signed by William R. Turnipseed, a retired brigadier general who was an officer in the Montgomery unit. Bush was supposed to report to him, but Turnipseed has said he does not recall seeing Bush.
However, there were numerous holes in Calhoun's story -- not the least of which is that the dates of his service don't match up with those for Bush.
My friend Joel S. wrote in to the Washington Post reporters pointing out these issues:
- The Allen and Romano story in the Washington Post, as well as related wire service stories gives considerable credence to Bill Calhoun as a witness to George Bush's attendance at drill in Alabama.
Yet Calhoun is claiming extensive Bush attendance for the most part at a time when Bush had not gotten orders for Alabama and for signins not claimed on Bush's attendance record. This is 64-80 hours of time on base, unrecorded anywhere except in Calhoun's memory. A number of members of the squadron deny ever seeing Bush.
This deserved to have better foundation before being published, especially since one of those who claims to have served with Bush, one Colonel William Campenni, also claims to have been in (a) graduate school (presumably through spring 1972) or (b) in the Pennsylvania Air Guard as a fully qualified pilot performing heroic deeds (presumably later in 1972).
Kevin Drum at Calpundit, who has really taken the lead in chasing down many of this story's loose ends, points out even more inconsistencies in Calhoun's story.
CBS also interviewed Calhoun -- however, its story also pointed out the holes in Calhoun's version of events:
- But Calhoun's account appears to be at odds with records released by the White House. They show that President Bush logged no Guard duty -- anywhere -- from April 17th until October 28th.
And former Guard Pilot Bob Mintz -- who was with the Alabama unit at the time -- says the base was all abuzz about a politically-connected Lieutenant coming in. But Mintz claims he never saw Mr. Bush -- and expects the newcomer would have stood out.
"I just don't see how you could, ah, walk into a military squadron of people who are intimately familiar with each other and their jobs and things and not recognize him as a stranger, ya know?" said Mintz.
Reporters at today's press briefing asked press secretary Scott McClellan about the holes in Calhoun's story, since McClellan had been referring to the Boston Globe article in which it appeared all day as a kind of catch-all exoneration of the whole affair:
- Q Can I ask you a question, Scott? I just want to be absolutely clear on something here. The records that you released earlier this week on the President's Guard service state that he did not perform any Guard service in the third quarter of 1972. That's correct?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you have the records in front of you, and they state the dates on which he was paid. And you are paid for the days on which you serve.
Q So they state that between April 16th of 1972 and October 28th of 1972 he did no Guard duty.
MR. McCLELLAN: We've been through these issues, John, and we've provided you with the documents that show his service.
Q And do you believe that's correct, that he did no duty between April 16th and October 28th?
MR. McCLELLAN: John, I don't know why we need to go through this again. This issue we've been through earlier this week.
Q Well, the reason I bring up the question is that John Calhoun, who claims he was the person in charge of making sure that President Bush reported for duty at the 187th Tactical Recon Group, says that he saw the President several times on the base between May and October of 1972, yet there is no record of him being there, in terms of what you released earlier this week.
MR. McCLELLAN: I don't speak for him. You would have to talk to Mr. Calhoun. I do not know him.
Q We did talk to Mr. Calhoun, and Mr. Calhoun said that he saw the President several times between May and October of 1972.
MR. McCLELLAN: And like I've said --
Q So I was just wondering, can you explain that discrepancy?
MR. McCLELLAN: And like I've said, the President doesn't recall the specific dates on which he performed his duties. He does remember serving both in Alabama and in Texas. During that entire period, he was a member of the Texas Air National Guard.
Q But the records that you released do recall quite specifically the days that the President served on. There's no record of his being there --
MR. McCLELLAN: Actually, these are National Guard records that document the President did serve during that time period. And that was an issue that was raised earlier this week.
Q Right. But the records clearly recall that he did no Guard duty between April 16th and October 28th. Yet, Mr. Calhoun says he saw him on the base at the 187th between May and October of '72. So there's a discrepancy here. I'm wondering if you can explain it?
MR. McCLELLAN: John, again, we've provided you with the records and the facts are in the records that we have.
Q A good point. Could the records be incomplete?
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?
Q Could the records be incomplete?
MR. McCLELLAN: Direct that question to the National Guard. These are the personnel records that we've received.
Also worth noting: the Boston Globe appeared to severely undermine Bill Burkett's account of observing underlings "scrubbing" the Bush files, but even it only discounts Burkett's substantiation; none of the witnesses dispute that Burkett saw what he says he saw. At worst, Burkett's story becomes a she said/he said matter.
Not that any of these particularly matter. As I've said all along, the undisputed facts of the case -- Bush's failure to take a physical and subsequenting grounding; and his absence without leave for at least a six-month period -- are damning enough. And they continue to raise questions.
Notice, for instance, that the subject of Bush's failure to take the exam continues to be something that press secretary Scott McClellan refuses to even admit, let alone discuss? He refused to even explore the issue tangentially again with Helen Thomas, as Josh Marshall reports.
Notice, by the way, how McClellan cleanly evades giving any kind of answer -- neither denying nor confirming. And in reply to any questions about the factual aspects of Bush's record, McClellan holds up an irrelevant Boston Globe article as a shield -- one that, a little while later, it became clear had a few holes in it anyway.
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