labman
Regarding ability to get into the National Guard, in most places, there was a big difference between 1961 and 1968. In 1961, there was no shooting war going on. In 1968, we had over a half a million in the SouthEast Asia zone, and a shooting war.
In New Jersey, the waiting list in 1967 was over two years long to get into the Guard.
The sorry thing about Bush is, after he got into the Guard and the taxpayers spent big bucks to train him as a pilot, he skipped his mandatory physical and as a result was grounded and could not do the job he had been trained for. No reasonable explanation has been offered for why he did this, but it is widely understood that at this stage of his life he was so alcoholic that he could not pass the physical, and he did not want this on his record.
Since he was one of the elite with a lot of pull from his daddy, nobody in the Guard made an issue of this.
Regarding ability to get into the National Guard, in most places, there was a big difference between 1961 and 1968. In 1961, there was no shooting war going on. In 1968, we had over a half a million in the SouthEast Asia zone, and a shooting war.
In New Jersey, the waiting list in 1967 was over two years long to get into the Guard.
The sorry thing about Bush is, after he got into the Guard and the taxpayers spent big bucks to train him as a pilot, he skipped his mandatory physical and as a result was grounded and could not do the job he had been trained for. No reasonable explanation has been offered for why he did this, but it is widely understood that at this stage of his life he was so alcoholic that he could not pass the physical, and he did not want this on his record.
Since he was one of the elite with a lot of pull from his daddy, nobody in the Guard made an issue of this.