Useful Fools

Every time a Bush hater attacks his military service record, they are slandering my dead comrades, people who died in military aviation serving their country. They are slandering me, my brother and my friends, and slandering the men and women currently in the National Guard and Reserves. There is always the implication that somehow Bush’s service was “the easy way out”. WRONG! The easy way out was to avoid service, as most of my current friends did, rather than piloting a flying coffin, the F-102! And most people of my generation did avoid service, which was also not dishonorable. Bush could have totally avoided military service also had he desired.

They say that Bush “took the easy way out” by “using his connections” to fly in the Texas Air National Guard. My childhood best friend, John Robert Kelley also took this “easy way out.” They had his memorial service in Albuquerque in July 1972 after he died in a training accident, flying a fighter jet in the New Mexico Air National Guard (the “Tacos”). Yep, that was the easy way out! John loved life. He was a fun guy, always with a prank or two, athletic and very intelligent. The last time I saw him, he was scheming how to get me a ride in his jet. Oh, and John didn’t use any connections to get into the ANG, because it wasn’t necessary. Every time I hear Bush slandered, I sadly remember this loss, and wonder at the lack of respect for the military so common on the left.
Read the rest of this entry »