What right-wingers wish to make Americans deny is that it takes courage to actively oppose war, and it takes extraordinary courage to actively oppose war if you are currently in the military or subject to draft (until 1973); and that if you wish to avoid combat on the ground, you have _a moral obligation to actively oppose war, so that no one else will have to do what you don't want to do yourself_.
The worst chickenhawks in my opinion are those who supported the Vietnam War, but avoided the combat zone by getting a special commission from the National Guard and the like because of family influence, and then failed to even show up for duty, like GW Bush:
***** Los Angeles Times July 4, 1999, Sunday, Home Edition SECTION: Part A; Page 1; National Desk HEADLINE: BUSH RECEIVED QUICK AIR GUARD COMMISSION; CANDIDATE: DURING VIETNAM WAR, HE WAS GIVEN COVETED SPOT IN TEXAS UNIT AND BECAME OFFICER WITHOUT SPECIAL TRAINING, CREDENTIALS. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE RULES WERE BROKEN FOR HIM. BYLINE: RICHARD A. SERRANO, TIMES STAFF WRITER
On a Texas spring day during the height of the Vietnam War, a fresh-faced young man about to graduate from Yale University walked into the office of the commander of the Texas Air National Guard.
Col. Walter B. "Buck" Staudt listened to the 21-year-old, who had no military or aviation experience but seemed polite and presentable.
"He said he wanted to fly just like his daddy," Staudt recalled.
The young man's "daddy," Staudt knew, was George Bush, then a Republican congressman from Houston and a former World War II bomber pilot.
Although getting into the state units was difficult for most others, Bush was soon in the Guard. He was sent to basic training and awarded a special commission making him an instant second lieutenant. An examination of nearly 200 pages of his service record obtained by The Times, plus interviews with Guard officials, veterans and military experts, show that Bush, now 52 and governor of Texas, received favorable treatment and uncommon attention in his time in the Guard....
When Bush was admitted into the Guard in 1968, 100,000 other men were on waiting lists around the country, hoping to win admission to similar units. The Guard was popular because those units were rarely sent to Vietnam.
He was able to jump into the officer ranks without the exceptional credentials many other officer candidates possessed. While Bush quickly won a place among the Guard's elite fighter pilots, other young men who earned their wings first had to build up extensive military experience and aviation skills....
Pilots were in demand in Vietnam. But Tom Hail, a historian for the Texas Air National Guard, said that records do not show a pilot shortage in the Guard squadron at the time.
Hail, who reviewed the unit's personnel records for a special Guard museum display on Gov. Bush's service, said Bush's unit had 27 pilots at the time he began applying. While that number was two short of its authorized strength, the unit had two other pilots who were in training and another awaiting a transfer. There was no apparent need to fast-track applicants, he said.
As for a direct commission for someone of Bush's limited qualifications, Hail said, "I've never heard of that. Generally they did that for doctors only, mostly because we needed extra flight surgeons."...
Times researchers Lianne Hart, John Beckham and Edith Stanley contributed to this story.... *****
***** The Boston Globe May 23, 2000, Tuesday ,THIRD EDITION SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A1 HEADLINE: 1-YEAR GAP IN BUSH'S GUARD DUTY NO RECORD OF AIRMAN AT DRILLS IN 1972-73 BYLINE: By Walter V. Robinson, GLOBE STAFF
AUSTIN, Texas - After George W. Bush became governor in 1995, the Houston Air National Guard unit he had served with during the Vietnam War years honored him for his work, noting that he flew an F-102 fighter-interceptor until his discharge in October 1973. And Bush himself, in his 1999 autobiography, "A Charge to Keep," recounts the thrills of his pilot training, which he completed in June 1970. "I continued flying with my unit for the next several years," the governor wrote. But both accounts are contradicted by copies of Bush's military records, obtained by the Globe. In his final 18 months of military service in 1972 and 1973, Bush did not fly at all. And for much of that time, Bush was all but unaccounted for: For a full year, there is no record that he showed up for the periodic drills required of part-time guardsmen.
Bush, who declined to be interviewed on the issue, said through a spokesman that he has "some recollection" of attending drills that year, but maybe not consistently. From May to November 1972, Bush was in Alabama working in a US Senate campaign, and was required to attend drills at an Air National Guard unit in Montgomery. But there is no evidence in his record that he did so. And William Turnipseed, the retired general who commanded the Alabama unit back then, said in an interview last week that Bush never appeared for duty there.... ***** -- Yoshie
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