This explains it all!
How hard can fake letters be? It’s so low tech that nobody expects it. Photocopying the letter over and over helps make it look more authentic too. By the way, if you use MS-Word and type “111th” it will superscript automatically. If you type “111 th” (with a space) then backspace later, it will not superscript: Just in case you want to do a few fake letters of your own. A great hobby!
One source of typewriter fonts is here.
Here’s a copy of the George Bush signature too.
I ‘m also wondering about the use of TX as opposed to Texas and did make that mistake in the letter. I suspect it’s small blunders like this that get this stuff exposed. But it is possible that the abbrev was ok in 1972. Hopefully someone will dredge that up.
More documents uncovered. This time on Dan Rather.
http://gopandthecity.blogspot.com/2004/09/dan-rather-exclusive.html
I secured an early release from active duty in the US Army to return to college in 1960 just as the Army was in need of people with my PMOS (111.10 at the time, light weapons infrantryman) or so I was told by my company commander. Do you really think that all of us who got “early outs” failed to fulfill our obligations? The Army apparently didn’t think so – you see they later gave me an honorable discharge. Never sent anybody looking for me either.
Larry R Duncan
Mission, Texas and places South in case the Army has changed its mind since September 1960
Rather pedantic of you Dr. Pedant,
In addition to the above rebuttals, on page 25 of the FOIA packet on Bush, you will see the name Bentsen, Lloyd C III. Care to venture a guess who that may be? Wouldn’t happen to be another senator’s son, would it? Also, if you look thru the other pages, you will see a number of names of people that are obviously not rich good ole white boys, i.e. Ruth (a boy called Ruth?), Karen, Avianantos or Pasquarella.
Also curious, on page 13, Bush certifies that he is not conscientious objector, nor dodging a draft induction. Anyone know what Selective Service category II-S means?
And on page 14, he admits to being arrested for disorderly conduct for which charges were dropped. Ah, the bane of reckless youth. Seems to me that a lot of young men chose to join the military in exchange for dropping relatively minor charges in those days–maybe that’s how & why he got in.
In the end, when Bush enrolled in Harvard Business School, he was granted an early out, instead of pursuing 3 dubious purple hearts.
If, according to urban myths, getting a slot in the reserve componet is “reserved” for priviliged folks, then how did young Kerry get into the Navy Reserves? This after being rejected for a deferment to study in Paris. Had he done his homework like Slick, he should have gotten himself enrolled before asking for the deferment, instead of “promising” to attend if excused.
Kerry volunteered for safe Stateside shore duty and his twice-bad karma landed him in Nam. He never volunteered for Nam, his reserve unit was ordered there after he joined. Observing the easy job of the Swift Boats, a lightbulb goes off: JFK=combat boat=hero=POTUS, but after transferring, the Swifties were moved from safe coastal patrol to dangerous brown-water patrols.
Alternatively, when Bush joined, his unit was already in Nam and only during pilot training did the unit get sent back home. Interceptors weren’t of much use in SE Asia, taking up limited ramp space and resources, better suited to intercepting Soviet Bears (recce plans) off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Furthermore, the F102s were in the hi-risk category for accidents — sounds like a job for a shirker (look up the annual stats).
Last point, if Bush lied when he said he was both Air Force and Guard, then Kerry lied in saying he was Navy, when he should be claiming strictly to be a Reservist. Or are we supposed to forget that he was an activated reservist?
Anyhoo, this is OT, since the question concerns forgeries. Speaking of which, why would Kerry have 3 citations for the same Silver Star, all signed by different people, and denied by one?
BTW, isn’t it a federal felony to forge official government documents?
John Dvorak; in answer to your question about the TX vs Texas, I was in both the MI & TX ANG.
In my ten years, IIRC I have seen “Michigan ANG”, “MichANG”, “MIANG” but never “MANG”, which conceiveably could have gained common usage after my time (circa 1980 – 1984). And I’ve seen “Texas ANG”, “TXANG” & “TANG”, but never “TexANG” which obviously was before my time (1984 – 1990. I believe using “TANG” is something used internally within Texas or Tennessee since the mid-80s, while using other abbreviations before the “ANG” differeniciated States with the same initial. I suspect the two character abbreviation followed the postal addressing format as that gained popularity.
I’ve kept most of my paperwork, unfortunately they’re in storage half-way accross the country, I’d love to dig it up and see how the earlier stuff was formatted. However, I’ve posted a couple samples that I once used as part of my online resume, including the NGB Form 22.
Back to the aforementioned FOIA package, while Bush’s NGB 22 version is older (Page
than mine, there is enough information in it, and in his DD Form 214 (page 9), to adequately demonstrate that time spent in training and other certain types of TDY is considered Active Duty and credited as Air Force service, not ANG. When compared, it would appear that my 22 is a blend of both Bush’s 22 & 214.
All in all, methinks that this event will go down in history as the dethroning of the 4th estate by the pajama-pundits — ironic that the VC “won” Nam in their PJs.
This is good, as all of the mainstream media should devote more resources to fact checking each other and calling their rivals on their shortcomings and maybe winning a
Pulitzerpajama prize or two.Cheers