Originally posted by: salfter
I'm sure the many people (not just the President) who've served their country in the Guard would take offense at your snide, ignorant remark. Since when is signing up in the Guard "dodging the military?"
Going AWOL is "dodging the military".
After Bush graduated from Yale, he applied for a position in the Texas National Guard, a position that required only part-time military duties at home, far from the battlefields of Vietnam. Bush shot to the front of 500 other applicants after a friend of his father, then a wealthy Houston congressman, phoned the Speaker of the Texas House.
After completing training as a pilot, George W. Bush requested and immediately received a transfer to an Alabama National Guard unit in May, 1972. But
Bush never showed up for duty there, according to the Alabama unit's commander and the commander's assistant. There are absolutely no records indicating that he ever showed up.
Military records show that
Bush's two commanding officers back in Texas reported George W. did not show up for duty there either for a year, and that they believed he had been transferred to Alabama. Meanwhile, when Bush failed to take his required annual medical exam in August, 1972, his pilot status was removed.
Click for document
It should be noted that reporting for military duty is not something that's optional, particularly during a war. Those caught shirking National Guard duties were usually punished by being drafted into the real army ? the one that landed you in Vietnam where some 350 American soldiers were killed each week. But, despite more than a year absent from duty, nothing happened to the well-connected George W. Bush.
The rich take care of the rich and the poor go to war.