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Dear Ed and Robert Q. "Ph.D",
I think this is a totally inappropriate forum to air your political views. I subscribe to the "Ercoupe Technical" to talk about Ercoupes!! I get enough politics on the news and in the papers. If you and the good doctor want to discuss Bush and Kerry do it with e-mail between yourselves because I don’t give a crap about your “thoughts” or political views.
Cecil Green, Professional Engineer, Ercoupe owner, Business owner and aircraft parts manufacturer.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ercoupe Technical Discussion (moderated) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 12:01 AM
To: Ercoupe Technical Discussion (moderated)
Subject: Digest list: Ercoupe Technical Discussion (moderated)
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Message list:
1. [COUPERS-TECH] RE: [COUPERS-FLYIN] Accusations about Bush Guard service
Messages:
From: "Robert Q. Steinman, PhD" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Ed Burkhead'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"'Ednet'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"Talk" <[email protected]>
Reply-To: "Robert Q. Steinman, PhD" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [COUPERS-TECH] RE: [COUPERS-FLYIN] Accusations about Bush Guard service
Thanks what you wrote needed to be said. Do it any time!
Robert Q. Steinman, Ph.D.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Burkhead [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 7:12 PM
To: Ednet
Subject: [COUPERS-FLYIN] Accusations about Bush Guard service
----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any
advice in this forum.]----
I m sending this not as a Bush partisan but as a retired Army Reservist
who s tired of the never-been-in-the-reserves press trashing Bush for
invalid reasons.
A major Kerry fundraiser, who was in the Alabama Guard 30 years ago is
showing up on an ad saying he never saw Bush showing up at his unit,
implying that Bush s documented service during that period is
fraudulent. Also, tonight is, once again, a TV network segment on
President Bush s last year of Guard service where it ll be discussed
whether he was AWOL, I m moved to describe some common practice from my
18 years in the Army Reserve.
In the Reserves, we understood that a soldier s civilian life sometimes
conflicted seriously with the part-time military duty. In order to
retain that soldier, we used provisions that allowed alternate service
and hoped the soldier could return to regular troop program unit duty in
the future.
We still owned the soldier, if it was necessary to activate the unit for
service. If the unit got activated, we d contact all the unit members
(even if we had to send the Federal Marshals). Then they would have
orders to come. Missing drills gave no relief from the active service
obligation, if called for the defense of the nation.
For example: If a soldier had to go to another state for a permanent
move or for part of a year, we knew that it could be unreasonable for
the soldier to be at monthly drills. By the rules, the soldier could
apply for permission to search for a unit in the other state and then
make the transfer, having missed some drills.
At least once, we had a person try to move to another state and fail to
make the move permanent, showing back up with us after half a year or
more. The soldier would then do a bunch of drills, back to back,
usually on week days for a couple of weeks, to make up the missed
drills. That kind of service wasn t as good as regular drills but it
could be as good as the supervising officer or NCO made it. Sometimes
it was a good thing for the Army, getting some work done that otherwise
couldn t have been accomplished.
As the supervising NCO of a couple of these, I can say I never saw them
perform the duty. But it was normal that I wouldn t see the duty I
did a weekend drill a month and if the soldier came in on weekdays, I
wouldn t see the performance. That s why the soldier had to report to
one of the full-time staff or drilling reserve supervisors for
assignment and supervision when performing alternate duty. That s why
the supervising staff person had to confirm that the duty was performed
before pay was authorized. Sometimes this service was performed at a
unit in the other state.
We had rare situations where the person missed most of a year s drills
and couldn t make them up, due to travel or whatever. Then the soldier
returned to regular service. If the soldier didn t perform the required
service, that year did not count as a good year toward retirement.
Yet the person s overall service could still earn an honorable
discharge. (Please not this is NOT Bush s situation.)
As proof of whether the duty was performed, the Leave and Earnings
Statement, showing that the soldier was paid, was the effective proof of
service. In order to prove my 18 years of service to get my 20-year
letter and credit for my years of service, it was the stack of LES forms
I had to provide.
Apparently, Bush needed to be in a state other than Texas. Though he
didn t find a unit where he could fly fighters (and transfer
permanently), he HAS pay documents (the touchstone, remember), showing
that he did perform equivalent service at a unit in the other state.
Bush has signed the form releasing his entire military record.
The guy in the ad (the Kerry fundraiser) said he didn t see Bush perform
the duty. Where was the guy on the dates Bush performed the duty? What
part of the building did HE do HIS duty? (We had a big building where I
saw maybe 10 of the 40 people there on weekdays and 50 of the 250 on
weekends.)
Finally, Bush has NOT criticized Kerry s Vietnam service. During the
Republican convention, no speaker criticized Kerry s Vietnam service.
Several explicitly said they honored Kerry for his Vietnam service, then
they went on to criticize Kerry for his post-Vietnam judgment.
Those are my thoughts. Make your own decisions.
Ed Burkhead
http://edburkhead.com/
ed -at- edburkheadQQQ.com (change -at- and remove the QQQ)
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