HOUSTON, July 23 - More than five months after the White House reported them lost and four weeks to the day after the Defense Department said they were inadvertently destroyed, missing payroll records of President Bush's disputed service in the National Guard have turned up, the Pentagon reported Friday.
The records - two half-sheets of paper covered with codes and numbers - confirm what other previously released records already show and the White House has acknowledged: that former First Lt. Bush did not perform service in the third quarter of 1972, when he left his Texas Air National Guard unit to transfer to Alabama where he worked on a political campaign.
But the records, released in response to a reporter's standing Freedom of Information request, do little to resolve other questions about how and where Mr. Bush performed his prescribed military service between May 1972 and May 1973.
Two other sets of payroll records, previously released, appear to conflict over whether Mr. Bush earned any service credits at all in 1972, but a White House spokeswoman attributed the discrepancy to accounting procedures.
The spokeswoman, Claire Buchan, said, "All the military records demonstrate he fully fulfilled his service."
How Mr. Bush got into the National Guard in 1968 during the Vietnam War and pursued his six-year commitment became an issue in his campaigns for Texas governor and president. It erupted again in February when Democrats supporting Senator John Kerry said Mr. Bush had gone AWOL, citing official reports that he had not been seen by military officers in Alabama. The White House on Feb. 10 countered by releasing hundreds of pages of National Guard records showing, in part, that Mr. Bush had accumulated sufficient payroll credits to back up his honorable, and early, discharge in October, 1973, to attend Harvard Business School.
In releasing the data, the administration noted that it was not including the payroll records from the third quarter of 1972 - that is, July, August and September - because, according to the Defense Financial Accounting Service, they "were apparently lost when they were being transferred to microfiche."
The Pentagon's Office of Freedom of Information and Security Review, on June 25, also omitted those records and ones from the first quarter of 1969 when it provided hundreds of pages of Mr. Bush's National Guard file - basically what the White House had already released last February - in response to a request filed Feb. 10 by The New York Times. The Pentagon's explanation was that in 1996 and 1997 the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Denver had been trying to salvage deteriorating microfilm and damaged numerous records in the process. President Bush's records for two quarters of 1969 and 1972 "were among the records destroyed" and no backup paper copies could be found, the Pentagon said.
But on Friday the same Freedom of Information office responded anew to The Times request saying that the finance and accounting office had been unable to locate the records because "incorrect accession numbers" had been provided.
Now released, the two records show the days Mr. Bush earned credits for service. The 1969 period, when he was learning to fly, shows service and is not in dispute. The 1972 sheet shows blanks for July through September. That period covers the time when another National Guard record shows that Mr. Bush was suspended from flying on Aug. 1, 1972 for "failure to accomplish annual medical examination." The payroll records produced Friday does not address the issue. The White House has said that Mr. Bush was not flying in Alabama so there was no reason for him to take the physical.
Previously released payroll records appear to conflict on whether Mr. Bush served in 1972 after April. Previously released records from the last quarter of 1972 show no service credits for October, November or December.
The records from the first quarter of 1973, however, recapping the previous quarter, credit Mr. Bush with 1972 service on Oct. 28 and 29 and Nov. 11, 12, 13 and 14.
NY Times
The records - two half-sheets of paper covered with codes and numbers - confirm what other previously released records already show and the White House has acknowledged: that former First Lt. Bush did not perform service in the third quarter of 1972, when he left his Texas Air National Guard unit to transfer to Alabama where he worked on a political campaign.
But the records, released in response to a reporter's standing Freedom of Information request, do little to resolve other questions about how and where Mr. Bush performed his prescribed military service between May 1972 and May 1973.
Two other sets of payroll records, previously released, appear to conflict over whether Mr. Bush earned any service credits at all in 1972, but a White House spokeswoman attributed the discrepancy to accounting procedures.
The spokeswoman, Claire Buchan, said, "All the military records demonstrate he fully fulfilled his service."
How Mr. Bush got into the National Guard in 1968 during the Vietnam War and pursued his six-year commitment became an issue in his campaigns for Texas governor and president. It erupted again in February when Democrats supporting Senator John Kerry said Mr. Bush had gone AWOL, citing official reports that he had not been seen by military officers in Alabama. The White House on Feb. 10 countered by releasing hundreds of pages of National Guard records showing, in part, that Mr. Bush had accumulated sufficient payroll credits to back up his honorable, and early, discharge in October, 1973, to attend Harvard Business School.
In releasing the data, the administration noted that it was not including the payroll records from the third quarter of 1972 - that is, July, August and September - because, according to the Defense Financial Accounting Service, they "were apparently lost when they were being transferred to microfiche."
The Pentagon's Office of Freedom of Information and Security Review, on June 25, also omitted those records and ones from the first quarter of 1969 when it provided hundreds of pages of Mr. Bush's National Guard file - basically what the White House had already released last February - in response to a request filed Feb. 10 by The New York Times. The Pentagon's explanation was that in 1996 and 1997 the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Denver had been trying to salvage deteriorating microfilm and damaged numerous records in the process. President Bush's records for two quarters of 1969 and 1972 "were among the records destroyed" and no backup paper copies could be found, the Pentagon said.
But on Friday the same Freedom of Information office responded anew to The Times request saying that the finance and accounting office had been unable to locate the records because "incorrect accession numbers" had been provided.
Now released, the two records show the days Mr. Bush earned credits for service. The 1969 period, when he was learning to fly, shows service and is not in dispute. The 1972 sheet shows blanks for July through September. That period covers the time when another National Guard record shows that Mr. Bush was suspended from flying on Aug. 1, 1972 for "failure to accomplish annual medical examination." The payroll records produced Friday does not address the issue. The White House has said that Mr. Bush was not flying in Alabama so there was no reason for him to take the physical.
Previously released payroll records appear to conflict on whether Mr. Bush served in 1972 after April. Previously released records from the last quarter of 1972 show no service credits for October, November or December.
The records from the first quarter of 1973, however, recapping the previous quarter, credit Mr. Bush with 1972 service on Oct. 28 and 29 and Nov. 11, 12, 13 and 14.
NY Times
