-Caveat Lector-
Friends: Barnes was asked to help get Bush in Guard
Governor says he didn't know of aid, didn't need any
09/08/99
By George Kuempel and Pete Slover / The Dallas Morning News
� 1999, The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN - Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes has told friends that in the
late 1960s, a well-known Houston oilman asked him to help George W. Bush get
a spot in the Texas Air National Guard.
Two of those friends, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said in
recent interviews that Mr. Barnes identified the oilman as Sidney A. Adger,
a longtime Bush family acquaintance who died in 1996.
Austin businessman and sometime lobbyist - told them that one of his staff
members forwarded Mr. Adger's request to the general in charge of the
Guard's air operations.
Mr. Bush said Tuesday that if such a contact occurred - at a time when many
young men were trying to get into the Guard as an alternative to combat duty
in Vietnam - it wasn't needed and it was without his knowledge or consent.
Asked whether Mr. Adger or anyone else approached Mr. Barnes about the
Guard, Mr. Bush said, "I have no idea and I don't believe so. I applied to
be a pilot in the Guard and I met the requirements and the people who
decided I was going to be in the Guard have said publicly that there was no
influence."
"All I know is anybody named George Bush did not ask him for help," said the
governor and GOP presidential front-runner while campaigning in New
Hampshire.
Mr. Barnes declined to comment but is scheduled to be questioned Thursday
about Mr. Bush and the Guard in a lawsuit filed by the ex-director of the
Texas lottery. Brig. Gen. James Rose, the general in charge of the Guard's
air operations, died in 1993.
A spokeswoman for former President George Bush confirmed the elder Bush's
friendship with Mr. Adger but said he was "almost positive" he never talked
to Mr. Adger - or anyone else - about getting his son into the Guard.
"He said he is fairly certain - I mean he doesn't remember everything that
happened in the 1960s - but he said he and Sid Adger never, ever talked
about George W. and the Texas Air National Guard," said Jean Becker, a
spokeswoman for the former president.
'The King'
Mr. Adger, a former pilot for Pan American World Airways, was known
affectionately in Houston business and political circles as "The King."
For years, he lived in the same Houston neighborhood and sent his children
to the same private school as the Bushes. He belonged to the the same
downtown clubs as the elder Mr. Bush, who from 1967 to 1970 represented
Houston as a Republican congressman.
"President Bush knew Sid Adger well," Ms. Becker said. "He loved him."
The governor's stint as a stateside fighter pilot during the height of the
Vietnam War has been a recurrent issue, raised by opponents when he first
ran for governor and now during his presidential bid.
Earlier this summer, Mr. Barnes acknowledged he sometimes received requests
for help in obtaining Guard slots. But he said he never got such a call from
anyone in the Bush family. He declined to comment on whether someone else
contacted him on Mr. Bush's behalf.
Lawsuit subpoena
Mr. Barnes has been subpoenaed to give a deposition Thursday in a wrongful
termination suit filed by Lawrence Littwin, the former lottery director,
against Gtech Corp., the lottery contractor that employed Mr. Barnes as a
lobbyist.
Mr. Littwin and his lawyers have suggested in court records that Gtech kept
its state contract in exchange for Mr. Barnes' silence on the Guard matter.
Gtech and Mr. Bush's office have denied the allegation.
A top Barnes aide, Nick Kralj of Austin, who simultaneously served as aide
to the late Gen. Rose, already testified in the lawsuit that he passed on
names of Guard applicants from Mr. Barnes to Gen. Rose. He said that he
couldn't recall the applicants' names but that Mr. Bush was not among them.
In interviews with The Dallas Morning News, Mr. Barnes' friends said he told
them Mr. Adger contacted him and asked for help to secure a Guard spot for
Mr. Bush. They said Mr. Barnes did not make it clear whether he believed the
Bushes were behind Mr. Adger's request.
They said that Mr. Adger was on good terms with Mr. Barnes, who would go on
to become lieutenant governor, and other Democrats in control of state
politics.
Interviews show that Mr. Adger had influential contacts in both parties. And
Mr. Barnes, as speaker and later as lieutenant governor, was the chief
political ally of Gen. Rose, who was engaged in an ultimately unsuccessful
fight to keep his job.
A rival for that job was Walter "Buck" Staudt, a colonel and commander of
the 147th Fighter Group in Houston, later promoted to general and now
retired. He was the person who signed up Mr. Bush for his pilot slot.
Bush's stance
Mr. Bush, 53, has maintained he got no special treatment in entering the
Guard after graduating from Yale University in May 1968. While working at
other civilian jobs, he served as an F-102 fighter pilot in Houston until
leaving to attend Harvard business school in 1975.
Research by The News has shown there were two or three pilot vacancies in
the 147th when Mr. Bush applied - before losing his student deferment from
the draft.
Although thousands of people were waiting for Guard slots around the
country, Gen. Staudt said that Mr. Bush got in because he was willing to
undertake the yearlong training and time-consuming duty as a pilot.
In an interview last week, Gen. Staudt denied that political influence
played a role in Mr. Bush's Guard appointment, or any others. He said he had
the power to name pilots without the approval of Gen. Rose, his supervisor.
But Gen. Rose's top aide at the time said that Gen. Rose's signature would
have been required on Mr. Bush's appointment. He said any effort to obtain
Gen. Rose's cooperation through Mr. Barnes probably would have been
unneeded.
"They [Staudt and Rose] had a personal feud with each other," the aide,
retired Col. Albert Lloyd, 62, said last week. "But it did not go down to,
'I'm not going to let you appoint anybody, or I'm not going to let you
enlist anybody.' "
Former state Rep. Jake Johnson, a Democrat who chaired the House Military
Affairs Committee and was a confidant of Gen. Rose's, recalled the subject
coming up during a visit with the general shortly after Mr. Bush's
enlistment.
"General Rose told me that he put 'that Republican congressman from
Houston's son in the Air Guard,' " Mr. Johnson recalled. He said the comment
came in one of many casual conversations the two men had as Gen. Rose was
struggling to keep his job as head of the Guard's air arm.
Adger's connections
Records and interviews show that, besides his links to the Bush family, Mr.
Adger had dealings with Gen. Staudt. In 1967, he was serving on the Houston
Chamber of Commerce aviation committee, and the panel's chairman was Mr.
Adger, according to chamber records.
Mr. Adger held a luncheon that year honoring Gen. Staudt and his unit for
winning an Air Force Unit of the Year commendation.
Mr. Adger's son, John, 22, was a sergeant in the 147th, Gen. Staudt's unit,
from February 1966 to February 1972. Another son, Stephen, 19, enlisted in
the same unit in February 1968, three months before Mr. Bush, and served
until February 1974.
John Adger, 56, who could not be reached for comment, is a director of the
Texas Thoroughbred Association. One of the association's paid lobbyists is
Robert Spellings, who was a chief Barnes aide, when friends say Mr. Adger
made contact regarding Mr. Bush.
Stephen Adger, 50, now a Houston businessman, said his father never
mentioned having helped Mr. Bush but said it is unlikely Mr. Bush would have
needed that: His qualifications and connections were obvious.
"He may have done it or he may not have done it," Mr. Adger said. "But it
didn't take Gen. Staudt [to get Mr. Bush into the Guard]. I mean here George
W. shows up, a graduate of Yale, a great guy, son of a congressman, that's
all he needed."
Mr. Adger was a vice president in the sales department at Milchem Inc.,
which supplied drilling fluids, or "mud," to the oil exploration industry.
Colleagues said his strength was an extensive network of business and
political contacts, rather than technical drilling knowledge.
Before entering Congress in 1967, the elder Mr. Bush was president of Zapata
Offshore Co. an oil exploration firm. The two men never did business, said
Ms. Becker, the former president's spokeswoman. But she said Mr. Bush
confirmed his friendship - even his affection - for Mr. Adger.
"He said he was just a great guy, just a classic Texas good old boy," she
said. "But beyond a kind of a coffee shop relationship, that was kind of
it."
Gov. Bush said Tuesday that he knew Mr. Adger and his sons socially in
Houston.
Ralph W. Noble II, 76, the retired president of the Milchem subsidiary
Milwhite Mud Sales, said that Mr. Adger's official duties did not include
dealing with public officials, but he enjoyed cultivating such contacts.
For instance, a 1960 newspaper clipping recounted how Mr. Adger and some top
Louisiana officials almost died in Houston, when their chauffeur-driven car
filled with exhaust fumes on a hunting trip. With him were the Louisiana
governor's executive secretary, the conservation director, the highway
director and a mineral board member.
"Sid liked to know people like that," Mr. Nobel said.
Staff writers Christoper Lee in Manchester, N.H., and Wayne Slater in Austin
contributed to this report.
http://www.dallasmorningnews.com/specials/bush_campaign/controversies/0907bu
sh1111guard.htm
Bard
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
