Was GWB a fighter pilot or fake?

“A lot of people say he never was and that there are no people who will confirm his training or ever having seen him fly a jet.I think ive seen a photo of gw posing in a cockpit but thats about it.”

“Yeah man. He was a total badass and shot down all those MIGs over 'Nam. Oh wait, he was in the reserves and never even finished his requirements stateside.

Scrap my earlier comment.”

“GW was assigned to a reserve unit statside. The plane he was trained to fly was being replaced and not sent to Vietnam. He flew for about a year and then didn't get his flight physical (this was supposedly the first time they were urine testing for drugs) he went AWOL around this time, although now states he was helping someone in another state with an election. His CO states that he never saw him... same story as the woman who ran the community center that he was supposed to do his public service in after his DUI”

“donman
i didnt know any of that!Did he really fly for a year-i mean pilot a jet?There are people who dispute this.”

“He did fly, he did let his flight status expire because he didn't get a flight physical”

“The elder Bush was a fighter jock, but I don't think the younger saw action.”

“If some of you spent as much time focusing on your own lives and problems as you do on GW you'd prob.be the most well adjusted folks on this blue sphere we call earth...”

“Can any one give a link about this?? I'm very interested and know how memories can fade or alter, particularly when personal opinions are involved.”

“Big Daddy Bush was NOT a fighter pilot!!!

He was an airplane driver.

He piloted either a Curtis Helldiver or a Grumman SBD Dauntless.
These planes are DIVE BOMBER/TORPEDO BOMBERS!!!

Ask any real fighter pilot what the difference is.

Old man Butch was either shot down or forced to ditch for some reason and spent some hours in the water.

While he was in the water, alone, Japenese men left the shore in boats to "get him".
Big George's fighter pals played "life guard" beating off his would-be captors......lucky for George!

The plane(s) in question had a crew of 2 and 3....I think the Dauntless had 2.
The crewmates did not survive the ditching.

While the job of bomber driver was a dangerous one and he had to be pretty good to successfully land and take off from a "flat-top", the dude was not a fighter pilot.

These are the facts from memory.

If one of you mooks wants me to "back it up"......well, you can go ahead and pound sand.”

“As for Junior......

He was a draft dodger and deserter.

His family connections got him a slot in the Alabama Air Natl Guard.

The Guard was a way to dodge service in the Vietnam War.

During the war young men were scrambling to get slots in the various Natl Guard units to avoid Vietnam.

Here in Maryland and Virginia there is the 29th Infantry Division.
It is now and has been "All Guard".
The 29th was activated in '40 or '41 and eventually landed at Normandy on 6/6/44 with heavy losses.

From dodging bullets to dodging the draft......wow!”

“I would not be considered to be in the GW fan club, but in fairness, during the Vietnam war a lot of people didn't get drafted into the army because:
1. They stayed in college and got a college deferment.
2. They got a physical deferment (4F)
3. They joined some other branch of service (e.g., Navy), the Reserves (e.g., Army, Navy, or Marine), or the Guard.
4. They got a high lottery number.

It was commonplace to do whatever you could to get into the reserves, etc., and the colleges were filled with guys who didn't want to be there. The day after the lottery, the dorm at my college was clogged with U-Haul trucks because of all the guys with big numbers who quit college. I don't recall these people being labelled draft dodgers.

A lot of people left the US and went to Canada to avoid the draft. These were called draft dodgers. Jimmy Carter pardoned them first thing after he became President...which didn't go over very good with a lot of people. I think he hoped they would have 4 years to forget...”

“High lottery number was my ticket out. It's the only time I have hit the lottery. After my class, Tricky started to pull out.
It's difficult to see GW's moral character come under scrutiny, because, as everyone knows, it's all Clinton's fault!”

“I have a slight problem with those who did not volunteer for combat volunteering others. It reminds me of tobacco company executives who who do not smoke. I read an article once where the author asked one of these executives about it and I'll never forget what he said... "We reserve the right to smoke for the poor and the ignorant."

The parallel to these so-called 'chicken-hawks' is all too clear to me.”

“I was 18 in '70 and my lottery number was 344.
That was the only time I won the lottery too.

I consider myself a draft dodger.
One way or the other I dodged the draft.

I was told by older boys at the time to stay the hell out of it if I didn't have to go.

In all fairness its not right to blame those who refused to either volunteer or dodged the draft, whether active or passive, for the misfortune of those who did end up in the war.

The blame and shame belongs with those Politicians and Capitalists who refused to give up their lucrative holdings in that former French colony.
They spent the lives and treasure of many people in an effort to hold on to that which did not belong to them.

Jimmy Carter did the right thing and in a timely fashion.”

“Yes, no matter what the historical revisionists want to tell you young men, Vietnam was an American and French crime. Ho Chi Minh would probably have been a good leader of a united Vietnam had we let him carry out his original intentions.”

“President Bush's biography is well publicized on the internet. Why is davex unable to confirm his questions himself? Too lazy? Too stupid? Too Liberal?”

“Tom...correction..George Sr. flew the Avenger(a Torpedo plane) which was produced by General Motors during WW2...Turns out the Avengers took the heaviest amount of casulties during battles like Midway(due to the fact that they flew slow and low) So I don't think you can knock the guys bravery or commitment to the WW2 effort.”

“Ah, the Avenger......TBF, I believe!
That's the one I couldn't remember!

I built models of many of those planes about 35 years ago.......what a dork!

So who the hell was "knockin' the guy's bravery or commitment"???

I said that Big Daddy was not a fighter pilot.


Big George was indeed brave enough and capable enough to do that thing.
And 20 years old too.

None of that changes the fact that the Bush clan are a buncha thieves.”

“bacpac,
Last question i posed to you ,you were incapable of refuting(on the other GW enron thread).So now you just resort to personal attacks.You only lose debates like that.”

“my Dad volunteered to go to Vietnam cause he heard they were harder on you if you got drafted. I respect him for it. I think it was one of the hardest things he ever went through in his life.

So, don't have much sympathy for DDers, or whatever you want to call them Phil”