3/5/03 Sanderhicks.com Breaking News:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

also published as a BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION by Sander Hicks

A new study of Bush's "Volunteer Sheet" from his Texas Air National Guard files shows Bush chose to opt out of overseas duty. This revelation and more are contained in "Horns and Halos", the critically-acclaimed documentary which opened Friday in New York City. The film tracks Sander Hicks' re-publication of controversial Bush bio "Fortunate Son." Amid allegations of draft-dodging, in July, 1999 Bush told CNN: "Had my unit been called up, I would have gone overseas." ( http://www.cnn.com)

But in a frank and explosive scene, Publisher Sander Hicks discovers that Bush's Guard files prove that he did not volunteer for overseas duty as implied in Campaign 2000. Instead, Guard records show that as a F-102 pilot in the National Guard, Bush opted out and left his Volunteer Sheet's "Area Preferences, Overseas Areas" blank. (Buzzflash.com will today release the audio clip from this scene. For copy of Bush's Volunteer Sheet, click here.)

Bush's Texas Air National Guard files also contain strange omissions and abbreviations in his discharge papers. Bush received three citations, according to the press release upon Bush's graduation from flight school. However on box 24 of his official discharge papers, Bush had the markings: "TAFMS" and "TAFCS." These abbreviations (for Total Active Federal Military Service and Total Active Federal Service Commissioned Service) are oddly out of place. (Source: Air Force Staff Sergeant (Ret.) Mark Wilson. [click to contact])

Although Bush had signed up for a six-year stint, he left shortly after serving four years with the 147th Fighter Group in Houston. On the year 2000 Campaign trail, he claimed that he made up his service, at the Dannelly Air Base in Alabama while working on a political campaign. But General William Turnipseed recently recalled, "to my knowledge, he never showed up." (http://www.abs-cbnnews.com)

Albert Lloyd Jr., a retired colonel from the Texas Air Guard who was hired by the Bush campaign to make sense of the governor's military records, told the Boston Globe that Bush's aides were concerned about the Alabama gap in his records. And unlike Senator McCain during Campaign 2000, Bush never released his full military records. Today, Harvey Gough, of Dallas, a 32-year veteran of the Texas National Guard, says that the Bush team purged Bush's Guard files shortly after Bush's inauguration as Texas Governor:

"I taught Dan Bartlett the military system. He learned pretty good. He and I got along. He came from the Bush group as a novice, he didn't know the military system." Gough believes that Bartlett and Danny James purged Bush's record of "quite a bit...all Bush's time in Alabama." Gough is available for comment at his Texas business phone, contact sanderhicks.com for his contact info. (or see SanderHicks.com's original Gough interview.)

Horns and Halos, the documentary regarding publication of Fortunate Son, the controversial biography of President Bush, opened Friday, February 28, 2003, and runs for two weeks at Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th street, NYC.

Attachments:

Bush's Volunteer Sheet

Discharge Papers.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Sander Hicks
Sanderhicks.com
631 424 1291
sander@softskull.com