NEW YORK, 14 July 2004 — The Pentagon announced last Friday the military records that would have proved President George Bush’s whereabouts during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more than 30 years ago were “inadvertently destroyed.”
The Defense Finance and Accounting Service said the payroll records of former 1st Lt. Bush in 1996 and 1997 were lost while trying to recover damaged microfilm. The Pentagon said no backup paper copies were found.
The destroyed records cover the three-month period from 1972 to 1973, which is the period in question regarding Bush’s National Guard service.
Some media sources have asked why the loss was not mentioned last February when the White House officials made public hundred of pages of the president’s military records which were released in an effort to curtail Democratic charges that Bush was absent without official leave, or AWOL.
Friday’s announcement caught both Republicans and Democrats by surprise. C.Y. Talbott, chief of the Pentagon’s Freedom of Information Office, produced a letter and CD-ROM of hundreds of records that the Bush administration had previously released.
But some 60 pages of some of Bush’s other records, including his medical file, were excluded for reasons of “privacy.”
Military records that could help establish Bush’s whereabouts during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more than 30 years ago have been inadvertently destroyed, according to the Pentagon.
The payroll records of “numerous service members,” including former 1st Lt. Bush, were ruined in 1996 and 1997 by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service during a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm, the Pentagon said. No backup paper copies could be found, it added in notices dated June 25. The destroyed records cover three months of a period in 1972 and 1973 when Bush’s statements of service in Alabama are in question. The disclosure appeared to catch some experts, both Bush supporters and detractors, by surprise.
Even Albert Lloyd of Austin, Texas, the retired lieutenant colonel who had studied Bush’s records for the White House, said the announcement had come as news to him.
The loss was announced by the Defense Department’s Office of Freedom of Information and Security Review in letters to The New York Times and other news organizations that for nearly six months have sought Bush’s complete service file under the open records law. Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director who has said the released records confirmed the president’s fulfillment of his National Guard commitment, did not return two calls seeking a response.
Talbott said in the letter that he could not provide complete payroll records, explaining, “The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) has advised of the inadvertent destruction of microfilm containing certain National Guard payroll records.”
He went on: “In 1996 and 1997, DFAS engaged with limited success in a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm.
During this process the microfilm payroll records of numerous service members were damaged, including from the first quarter of 1969 (Jan. 1 to March 31) and the third quarter of 1972 (July 1 to Sept. 30).
Bush’s payroll records for these two quarters were among the records destroyed. Searches for backup paper copies of the missing records were unsuccessful.”
Talbott’s office would not respond to questions. Bryan Hubbard, a spokesman for the defense finance agency in Denver, said the destruction had occurred as the office tried to unspool 2,000-foot, or 1,800-meter, rolls of fragile microfilm. He said he did not know how many records had been lost or why the loss had not been announced before.
Talbott’s letter said that in 1996 and 1997, the Pentagon “engaged with limited success in a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm.” During the process, “the microfilm payroll records of numerous service members were damaged.”
This process resulted in “the inadvertent destruction of microfilm containing certain National Guard payroll records,” including Bush’s, he said. Democrats have accused the president of ducking the draft call to Vietnam in favor of less dangerous duties.
Bush was in the Texas Air National Guard from 1968 to 1973, much of the time as a pilot, but never went to Vietnam or flew in combat. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic presidential candidate, is a decorated Vietnam veteran.
Some Democrats have questioned whether ever Bush showed up for temporary Guard duty in Alabama while working on a Senate campaign for a family friend during a one-year period from May 1972 to May 1973.
National Guard officers who were in Alabama at this time told the media they do not remember seeing him. The records showed that Bush was suspended from flying status beginning Aug. 1, 1972, because of his failure to have an annual medical examination. His last flight exam was on May 15, 1971. The lost records might have thrown some light on whether Bush fulfilled his legal commitment.
A White House spokeswoman has said the documents already released prove beyond doubt that President Bush “fulfilled his duties in the National Guard at the time”. Questions about Bush’s National Guard service were first raised nationally during the 2000 presidential campaign and the issue has resurfaced as Bush fights for re-election.
Bush left the National Guard in 1973 with an honorable discharge to attend Harvard Business School. The Pentagon letter was sent in response to an April lawsuit filed by the AP under the federal Freedom of Information Act. That law requires government agencies to make public information not specifically exempted for disclosure.
Talbott’s office would not respond to questions from the media on Friday, saying that further information could be provided only through another Freedom of Information application.
