Chickenhawk with borrowed feathers.
http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=276 Force award he never earned
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LATEST at RAW STORY: Bush’s chief of staff says he thinks of America as a 10-year-old; PHOTO OF BUSH WEARING FALSE RIBBON DISCOVERED AT BUSH’S FATHER’S PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
By John Byrne | Raw Story Editor
A closer examination of a photograph included in President George W. Bush’s Air Force records, released by the White House earlier this year, shows then-Second Lieutenant Bush wearing an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award which he never earned. The photograph is also displayed on George H. W. Bush’s Presidential library website.
Additionally, Lieutenant Bush would not have been authorized to wear the ribbon temporarily, the Air Force Personnel Center said in an email.
“There isn’t a ‘temporary’ wear of AF Outstanding Unit Awards for AF personnel,” the Air Force Personnel Center stated.
“I’ve never heard of temporary wear,” added Assistant Reagan Defense Secretary for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations and Logistics Lawrence J. Korb, whose job included overseeing the Air Force Reserves from 1981-1985, in a telephone interview Wednesday. “The unit didn’t get this until 1975.”
The Air Force Public Affairs office tried to answer an inquiry, but went silent and said they just didn’t have enough information to answer after they heard the query was on President Bush. They deferred comment to the White House, and supplied the White House comment phone line.
RAW STORY reached the White House Press Office through the main switchboard, and a spokeswoman said they would look into it and return the call as soon as possible.
“We’re very short staffed this week,” she said, referring to the Republican National Convention.
The London-based newspaper The Telegraph sought comment on the issue Sunday but received no response.
The Air Force Historical Research Service Organization confirmed that the 147th Fighter Intercept Group and the 111th Fighter Intercept Squadron received an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for the time period of 1965-1966, two years before Bush joined the service.
The Air Force also said both units received the Outstanding Unit Award in 1975. Bush was discharged from his Texas Guard unit on Oct. 1, 1973.
Between these dates, the Air Force said Wednesday, there are “no additional awards.”
More importantly, however, the above photograph had to have been taken some time between his qualifying as a pilot–since he is wearing his pilots’ wings–on November 26, 1969 and his promotion to First Lieutenant on November 7, 1970, since he is listed as a Second Lieutenant (see photograph below).
Bush earned his pilots’ wings on Nov. 29, 1969, according to his White House military biography.
His biography does not list that he was awarded the Air Force Oustanding Unit Award.
Walt Starr, who did the original research, speculates that Bush was wearing the ribbon because many members of his unit (who had been in the unit since 1966) would have been wearing the ribbon, and he probably thought he was supposed to be wearing it.
American media, having focused for more than three weeks on Swift Boat veterans’ attacks on Sen. John Kerry’s Vietnam service, has yet to report the story. It has, however, appeared in the The Telegraph, which carried a brief piece on the charges Aug. 29.
Starr first reported the story in the popular liberal forum, Democratic Underground, on Aug. 23.
Punishment for wearing an award one hasn’t earned is punishable by bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and/or confinement for 6 months under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
EARLIER STORY: REAGAN Defense Secretary confirms Bush was AWOL in 1972; Bush repeatedly misled press, public about service
DEVELOPING…. Keep your eye on Raw Story for updates.
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