The Spokesman-Review.com – Bush’s partial history
Military rules used in 1974 to ground two Washington Air National Guard airmen with access to nuclear weapons also applied to a Texas Air National Guard unit where Lt. George W. Bush was a fighter pilot.
Some military researchers and a former Texas Guard lieutenant colonel believe the stringent regulations — known as the Human Reliability Program — may have been invoked to stop Bush from flying Texas Air National Guard jets in 1972.
Bush’s military service more than 30 years ago during the Vietnam War has been an issue since his first campaign for president. More recently, some researchers and national media outlets have been investigating the period from May 1, 1972, to April 1, 1973, when Bush left his unit in Texas and moved to Alabama.
Bush’s military records from that period are spotty, and have led some to suggest he was avoiding his Guard obligations.
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Human reliability regulations were used to screen military personnel for their mental, physical and emotional fitness before granting them access to nuclear weapons and delivery systems.
Under the rules, pilots could be removed immediately from the cockpit for HRP issues, which happened in the 1974 Washington Air National Guard case. The two Washington airmen were suspended on suspicion of drug use, but eventually received honorable discharges.
A second previously unreleased document obtained by the newspaper, a declassified Air Force Inspector General’s report on the Washington case, states that human reliability rules applied to all Air National Guard units in the 1970s. From 1968 to 1973, Bush was assigned to the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston.
��The Human Reliability Program, in a nutshell, applied to every U.S. Air Force and Air Guard pilot in any aircraft they would fly,� said Marty Isham, a former Air Force briefing officer.
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At the National Guard Bureau, now headed by a Bush appointee from Texas, officials last week said they were under orders not to answer questions.
The bureau’s chief historian said he couldn’t discuss questions about Bush’s military service on orders from the Pentagon.
��If it has to do with George W. Bush, the Texas Air National Guard or the Vietnam War, I can’t talk with you,� said Charles Gross, chief historian for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.
Gee, what a surprise. Once again, Bush won’t tell the truth, and orders others not to either.