What Did Bush Do in the Guard?

Some of Bush's critics have declared him AWOL or a deserter. They point to selected records released from his military files that suggest he was basically a no-show during his temporary gig in Alabama, that he was grounded and put on nonflying status for failing to accomplish a physical, and that he seemed to have frittered away his final year before taking an early discharge eight months shy of his six-year obligation.

They also complain that he was a rich kid with deep family political connections -- his father was congressman from Houston and his grandfather had been a U.S. senator from Connecticut -- for whom the Guard cut corners to make sure he was kept out of harm's way, specifically the Vietnam draft.

The White House released documents throughout last week that it said supported Bush's account -- including ones Friday night, which it said amounted to everything it had.

An examination of those documents, and nearly 200 pages of his service record obtained by The Times in 1999 as Bush was starting his first campaign for the White House, plus interviews with Guard officials, veterans and military experts, showed that while there was no evidence of illegality or regulations broken to accommodate Bush's entry or rise in the service, doors were opened and good fortune flowed to him at opportune times.

Retired Col. Charles C. Shoemake, an Air Force veteran who later joined the Texas Air National Guard, has told The Times, "We were flooded with applications back then. I'm not going to deny a lot of them turned to the Guard to get out of Vietnam." He added about Bush, "His name didn't hurt, obviously."

George W. Bush graduated from Yale University in 1968, soon to become eligible for the draft. Mindful of his father's World War II exploits as a bomber pilot, he showed up at the Texas Air National Guard office announcing he wanted to fly jets "just like Daddy."

The National Guard was a far different creature then than it is today.

Now, members of the Guard are being used in Afghanistan and Iraq, as they were in an earlier war, waged by Bush's father, in the Persian Gulf.

But in the late 1960s, the National Guard was a safe haven from the draft for young men who did not want to opt for Canada or the regular army. Instead, guardsmen ended up in a sort of nether land, not honored or denounced as Vietnam veterans, but also not considered hip or despised as draft dodgers.