update: Now one of Bush's former commanders has come forward on his own with information that Bush did, in fact, volunteer for Vietnam service. Isn't it ironic that the man who didn't campaign on Vietnam is the only one getting any benefit from all the Vietnam talk? Maybe this is a hint for candidate in future elections that they should focus in current issues instead of divisively rehashing the past? Oh, and that it might be useful to not have spent your time badmouthing your "band of brothers", meeting with the enemy in Paris, and throwing away your medals. (via InstaPundit, who also points out that this information was known and published at least as far back as February.)

original post:
Bill Archer had this comment on my The Unimpeachable Source post. It provides some answers to those who think that President Bush should have to answer the substance of the charges presented in the forged memo smear job. Thank you, Bill, for taking the time to provide this information.

First, his reference to George Bush's "gaps in service" is a non-sequiter. After flight training, which involved upwards of two years on essentially active duty, the only requirement for "service" was the yearly accumulation of 50 service points.

There is no "you must show up every other weekend" type of arrangement involved here. The left keeps finding new ways to imply otherwise (deserter, AWOL etc.) but however they want to phrase it, the truth is that they're just wrong.

If you completed your requirements by showing up every day for a month and then didn't come around again for a year, there was no problem. It would be nice if the left would even TRY to get their heans around this concept, but they simply can't seem to do it.

Or, rather, they simply don't want to.

Secondly, could we please stop conceding the "of course Bush got preferential treatment and people pulled strings to get him into the guard blah, blah, blah" line?

The fact is that, apart from the testimony of this Barnes guy, the major Kerry fundraiser whose own daughter says he is lying about the whole thing (and who, at any rate, told Rather thay he pulled strings for Bush while serving as Texas Lt Governor, but in fact did not assume that job until several months AFTER Bush entered service) there is no evoidence of this whatever.

It is simply an ASSUMPTION. The press, most of whom was not even around back then, refers to this as a "coveted National Guard spot" and others refer to the "long waiting lists" which Bush clearly leapfrogged.
But in fact, an examination done in 1999 by a Dallas newspaper proved that, in fact, Bush signed up to fill one of many empty slots.

For while it is true that, Nationally, one of the favored methods of avoiding the draft was to get into the Guard, these "coveted" spots were for positions like "clerk-typist" which required only a three month active duty trainng period.

On the contrary, becoming an F102 pilot, as Bush did, required an intial two-year active duty traing committment, and these spots went begging.

Furthermore, at the time Bush enlisted in the 111th, the unit was ACTIVELY SERVING IN VIETNAM.

Johnson later brought them home, as he did most Guard units, as a political sop, but neither Bush nor anybody else knew this would happen.

In any case, the unit Bush joined, at the time he joined it, had an authorized roster of over 900 men, but had over 100 vacancies. Nobody had to pull any strings to get him in.

Indeed, even as late as 1970 the the unit had under 50% of the "Lt. Grade" positions (ie. Bush's job) filled. They would have been glad to take, say, Bill CLinton or anybody else who had an interest.

Now as the war wound down the Air Force had a glut of pilots. Many were being assigned to desk duty. Guard officers were routinely granted early outs if they had an acceptance in hand from a graduate school. (My own brother was a Naval Reserve officer on active duty on the FOrrestal around the same time. He got accepted to law school and they let him go 10 months early. The war was over and they just didn't need the manpower)
So this whole thing about Bush getting one of these "coveted" spots is, essentially, a myth, and I'd like to see it get challenged once in a while instead of "Bush got favors because he was well-connected" being the default starting position for the whole discussion.