Thursday, April 29, 2004
An essay: What I did during Vietnam
By George, Dick and John
PRESIDENT BUSH
Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard in 1968 after graduating from Yale University. During his first year of service, he took an eight-week leave to work on a Senate campaign in Florida.
Bush graduated from flight school at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia in 1969 and completed Combat Crew Training School at Ellington Air Force Base in Texas in 1970. He participated in drills and alerts at Ellington and began working for a Houston-based agricultural company. After his last flight as a Guard member in 1972, Bush moved to Alabama to work on another Senate campaign. He was assigned to guard National Guard units in Alabama. There is no record of him reporting for duty there, but Bush says he did participate. After questions were raised about his service, the White House in February released pay records and other documents supporting Bush's assertion that he fulfilled his National Guard duty. He lost his flight credentials after missing a physical exam.
Bush participated in non-flying drills at Ellington in 1973 and worked at an inner-city poverty program. In the fall, he began attending Harvard Business School and was placed on inactive Guard duty about six months before his six-year commitment ended.
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VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY
Cheney received five student and marriage deferments of service during the war. He received his first student deferment in 1963, while enrolled at Casper College in Wyoming. His status was renewed twice when he was an undergraduate at the University of Wyoming in Laramie.
After graduating in 1965, Cheney became a graduate student in the fall and obtained another deferment. He received a deferment under a provision for parents in 1966, when his wife, Lynne, became pregnant.
Cheney told The Washington Post in 1989, "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service. ... I don't regret the decisions I made. I complied fully with all the requirements of the statutes, registered with the draft when I turned 18. Had I been drafted, I would have been happy to serve."
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JOHN KERRY:
After graduating from Yale University in 1966, Kerry volunteered for the Navy and served two tours of duty in Vietnam. In his first tour, he spent four months on the USS Gridley frigate off Vietnam's shore. He volunteered for the second tour, where he served nearly five months as a swiftboat commander in the Mekong Delta and won three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star.
Kerry's three war injuries -- all minor -- were enough to allow him an early return to stateside duty. Kerry would have been discharged in December 1969 had he not voluntarily extended his tour of duty through the following August. But Kerry asked for an early release so he could run for Congress, and was discharged in January 1970. Kerry then ran for a House seat in Massachusetts, but later gave up his bid for the Democratic nomination. He joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War and became its leading spokesman. During a protest in April 1971, Kerry threw his war ribbons over a fence at the Capitol.
posted by chris at 5:28 PM
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