Rusted Sky

(Being one of several archive posts I've decided to save...)

Apparently not when you're GWB.

Over on Calpundit, they've got a nice clear image of Bush's points for his last fiscal year in the Air National Guard. They've also got a rather interesting discussion about the relevance of the information.

Basically, they don't give a shit. He was AWOL, doesn't matter if he's got points or paperwork showing he attended, nothing matters except their interpretation of things. I even went through the effort of doing a point-by-point analysis- because, after all, this is what I did for 8 years or so in the AF Reserve - and it was basically laughed at by some of the folks there.

Here's what I posted.

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Here things are in short form, based on the points records above at the top of this article, and based on my experience with the drill schedules and record keeping customs.

72 Oct 28-29 -- 4 points - Either rescheduled October drill, or premature November drill. 0 drill points, 0 AT points.

72 Nov 11-14 -- 8 points. Nov. drill, and December's - which is missing. +4 drill points, no AT points.

72 Dec - missing. 0 points, no AT points.

73 Jan 4-6 -- 6 points. Jan drill, and 1 day of another - maybe Feb. +2 points, no AT points.

73 Feb -- missing, so subtract 4 from 2 - -2 points, no AT points.

73 Mar -- missing, so subtract 4 from -2 - -6 points, no AT points.

73 April 7-8 -- 4 points, normal drill. Still 6 points down.

73 May 1-3 -- 3 points, not normal drill - Annual tour most likely? -6 drill points, 3 AT points.

73 May 8-10 -- 3 points, not normal drill. -6 drill points, 6 AT points.

Now, it could also be that he was doing his makeup for the excusals in Feb and March one period/point per day - and AT points and drill points ARE the same. Without a 40A, I'll admit I'm just guessing here.

73 May 19-20 -- 4 points, normal drill for May. -6 drill points (still), 6 AT points.

73 May 22-24 -- 3 points - not normal drill. -6 drill points, 9 AT points.

Now we go to the other copy of his points.

73 May 29-31 -- 3 points - not normal drill. -6 drill points, 12 AT points.

73 June 5-7 -- 3 points - not normal drill. -6 points, 15 AT points. Normal AT points needed - 14.

73 June 23-24 -- 4 points, normal drill. Still -6 drill points. 15 AT points.

Conversely, if some of the 3-pointers were single period makeups, we could be at 0 drill points and 9 AT points. But we'll keep the -6 and 15 for now.

73 July 2-3 -- 2 points - looks like AT or makeup, 1 period a day. -6, 17

73 Jul 5 -- 1 point, one day. -6, 18

73 July 9-12 -- 4 points, 4 days - Annual Tour? -6, 22 points

73 July 16-19 -- 8 points, 4 days, looks like a rescheduled drill weekend, as well as making up an excused drill weekend. -2 drill points, 22 AT points.

73 July 21-22 -- 4 points, two days - normal drill pattern here. Making up for August drill excusal?

(You could excuse drills in advance, with commander's approval.) +2 drill points, 22 AT points.

73 July 23-27 -- 5 points, 5 days, looks like annual tour. +2 drill points, 27 AT points.

73 July 30 - 1 point. +2 drill points, 28 AT points.

Annual Tour accounts for 15 of the 28 - 14 + 1 day travel time. 15 points remaining. (2 drill, 13 AT - remember they're interchangeable.)

73 Aug - Done, I think, 21-22 July.

73 Sept - No record. -4 points from the 15 - leaves 11 points excess.

Looks to me like he did more than his minimums for the year. I don't see a problem with this.

J.

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Look, I can accept someone might have different opinions than I do - I've got no problems with that. I also appreciate it when I see reasoned opinion. But what I'm seeing from the vast majority of the people there isn't reasoned - it's straight ignorance and it's determined ignorance. They don't know what goes on in the military reserves as far as pay and points go, and they're not interested in learning.

But hey, it's all part of politics as usual these days. I'm thinking, though, that business as usual needs to be changed radically - and I'm thinking that the DNC's going to find they've lost still more market share on this issue. Literally, is this the MOST pressing thing they can come up with to gripe about?

J.

Comments as they were then are in the extended entry... and new, additional comments are closed due to craptastic spam. Some folks just gotta ruin it for everyone...