John Smith
2004-02-19 02:34:01 UTC
Yes, he went AWOL on cause of the hemorrhoids!
Troublesome haemorrhoid revealed to unsuspecting US
(Filed: 15/02/2004)
George Bush's medical notes, released last week to counter claims he
went Awol from the military, were too revealing, finds David Wastell
Democrats were yesterday combing reports of President George W Bush's
newly-released National Guard records for evidence of gaps in his
military service - but many Americans were focusing on gaps of another
kind. First there were his tonsils, removed at the age of five, then,
as a teenager, the "fatty cyst" cut from his chest. Among other
medical hurdles surmounted by the young Mr Bush were a troublesome
haemorrhoid, endured while serving as a pilot in Texas, and
appendicitis at the age of 10. At one point he suffered fractured
ribs, and he was allergic to penicillin.
The medical revelations, unusually personal even by the exacting
standards of modern American public life, were among a host of what
one US newspaper sniffily referred to as "extraneous details" about Mr
Bush, buried among a thick sheaf of records released by the White
House on Friday.
"Extraneous" or not, information about Mr Bush's $212-a-month stint as
a sporting goods salesman at Sears department store in 1966, and his
spell as a messenger for a Texas law firm, fill in some blanks with
which biographers have struggled.
A "personal history" which he filled out in 1968, aged 21, listed the
exact date of his once glossed-over trip to Scotland - which for many
years remained his only experience of travelling abroad - as August
and September 1959.
Earlier in the week, Mr Bush had to endure the indignity of
publication of a full dental chart, culled from an examination of his
teeth at the Alabama base to which he was officially assigned in his
last year in the National Guard.
The records were put out in an attempt to quash revived controversy
over Mr Bush's Vietnam war-era service in the National Guard, and his
curious absence from duty for some of the time he was supposed to be
in Alabama. They show that Mr Bush was initially an eager trainee
pilot, signing a statement saying he had applied for training "with
the goal of making flying a lifetime pursuit".
In 1970 he was recommended for promotion, as someone who "clearly
stands out as a top-notch fighter interceptor pilot". The following
year he won praise from his superiors as "a good follower of military
discipline" with "sound judgment".
The tone of his military records changed abruptly, however, after May
1972, when Mr Bush transferred from Texas to Alabama for his fifth
year of service. During that period he earned just 41 "points" for his
service, scraping the 50-point minimum requirement only because he was
granted an unexplained 15 "gratuitous" points by his superiors.
He was later suspended from flying status after 625 recorded hours in
the cockpit because of "failure to accomplish annual medical
examination".
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
Troublesome haemorrhoid revealed to unsuspecting US
(Filed: 15/02/2004)
George Bush's medical notes, released last week to counter claims he
went Awol from the military, were too revealing, finds David Wastell
Democrats were yesterday combing reports of President George W Bush's
newly-released National Guard records for evidence of gaps in his
military service - but many Americans were focusing on gaps of another
kind. First there were his tonsils, removed at the age of five, then,
as a teenager, the "fatty cyst" cut from his chest. Among other
medical hurdles surmounted by the young Mr Bush were a troublesome
haemorrhoid, endured while serving as a pilot in Texas, and
appendicitis at the age of 10. At one point he suffered fractured
ribs, and he was allergic to penicillin.
The medical revelations, unusually personal even by the exacting
standards of modern American public life, were among a host of what
one US newspaper sniffily referred to as "extraneous details" about Mr
Bush, buried among a thick sheaf of records released by the White
House on Friday.
"Extraneous" or not, information about Mr Bush's $212-a-month stint as
a sporting goods salesman at Sears department store in 1966, and his
spell as a messenger for a Texas law firm, fill in some blanks with
which biographers have struggled.
A "personal history" which he filled out in 1968, aged 21, listed the
exact date of his once glossed-over trip to Scotland - which for many
years remained his only experience of travelling abroad - as August
and September 1959.
Earlier in the week, Mr Bush had to endure the indignity of
publication of a full dental chart, culled from an examination of his
teeth at the Alabama base to which he was officially assigned in his
last year in the National Guard.
The records were put out in an attempt to quash revived controversy
over Mr Bush's Vietnam war-era service in the National Guard, and his
curious absence from duty for some of the time he was supposed to be
in Alabama. They show that Mr Bush was initially an eager trainee
pilot, signing a statement saying he had applied for training "with
the goal of making flying a lifetime pursuit".
In 1970 he was recommended for promotion, as someone who "clearly
stands out as a top-notch fighter interceptor pilot". The following
year he won praise from his superiors as "a good follower of military
discipline" with "sound judgment".
The tone of his military records changed abruptly, however, after May
1972, when Mr Bush transferred from Texas to Alabama for his fifth
year of service. During that period he earned just 41 "points" for his
service, scraping the 50-point minimum requirement only because he was
granted an unexplained 15 "gratuitous" points by his superiors.
He was later suspended from flying status after 625 recorded hours in
the cockpit because of "failure to accomplish annual medical
examination".
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.