QandO

September 11, 2004

Those that would know say "no big deal"
Posted by McQ

As I've said repeatedly, the fact that George Bush may have missed some drills due to a job conflict, etc. is really not that big of a thing in the reserves. The civilian job is the top priority and the reserves and NG do their level best to work with the reservist or guardsman in regard to those conflicts.

Retired National Guard members and even an Army Reservist home on leave from Iraq say they aren't bothered by memos indicating President Bush was suspended from flying because he skipped a medical exam and missed six months of training with his Texas Air National Guard unit during the Vietnam war.

They said it's common for Guard members and reservists to miss drills - even up to six months - because of job conflicts, family problems or illness, and the members are encouraged to make up the drills so they don't lose pay or eligibility for retirement benefits.

"We worked around it. There's all kinds of situations ... that cause a person to go out of state for a period of time," said Ralph Bradley, 56, who served three years in Vietnam with the Air Force and 17 years with the Georgia Army National Guard.

So those that know simply shrug it off. They know this isn't anything special or rare.

"It's just politics. That's what they are doing; it's kind of obvious," said Neal Eubanks of nearby Leesburg, who served 39 years in the military - 23 in the Air Force and 16 in the Georgia Army National Guard.

Well it is politics, at least to those who know about how the military in general and the reserve components in particular work.

But to those who don't or refuse to learn, or to whom the facts are inconvenient, such as Terry McAuliffe and the crowd, they prefer to attack on very specious grounds.

As for reports - and criticism - that Bush may have sought to get out of Guard drills for several months in 1972, [Army Reserve Sgt. Tim] Wilding said: "It's stupid. They're trying to dig up crap.

"A lot of guys don't serve for four or five months at a time. They've got other stuff going on. They'll make it up later on, or they just won't get paid. That's really no big deal to a lot of National Guard soldiers. I don't see how it's relevant now," said Wilding, who has served nearly 20 years as an Army Reservist and has been stationed just north of Baghdad with the 428th Transportation Company.

What eveyone needs to understand is this ... the reserves and guard have always worked hard to help its reservists and guardsmen work through job conflicts which may remove them from the state and make drilling difficult. They work to retain good people. Anyone who's been in the reserves knows this to be true and understands that this is simply much ado about nothing.

As Neil Eubanks says, "Its just politics", and not even very good politics. Its the Democrat smear machine working overtime to plant false impressions about routine guard business and then repeat their lies over and over and over again hoping those unaware of how this all works will buy into the spin.

George Bush's records indicate he did what was necessary to have good years in both 1972 and 1973. He obviously had some job conflicts. But like thousands upon thousands of other rescervists, he found a way to make the number of points necessary to fulfill his obligation.

To those of us who've been in the reserves, its just "no big deal".

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