tinyurl.com/25ffq -> cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-RTO-rontz&idq=/ff/story/0002%2F20040709%2F0645031861.htm&sc=rontz&photoid=20040707MISW108
Bush Military Service Files Were Destroyed - Report NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Pentagon says military records related to President Bush's service in the National Guard more than 30 years ago were inadvertently destroyed, The New York Times reported on Friday. Payroll records of "numerous service members," including Bush, were ruined in 1996 and 1997 during a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the newspaper said, citing the Pentagon. Bush's whereabouts during his service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War have become an election-year issue, with some Democrats accusing him of shirking his duty. The destroyed files cover three months of a period in 1972 and 1973 when Bush's claims of service in Alabama are in question, the newspaper said. No back-up paper copies of the records could be found, the Pentagon said in notices dated June 25, according to the Times. The loss of the records was announced by the Defense Department's Office of Freedom of Information and Security Review in letters to the Times and other news organizations that for nearly half a year have sought Bush's complete service file, the newspaper reported. In February, the White House released hundreds of pages of Bush's military records. Those records did not provide new evidence to place Bush in Alabama during the latter part of 1972, when some Democrats say he was basically absent without leave. Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director who has said the released records confirmed the president's fulfillment of his National Guard commitment, did not return two calls for a response, the Times said. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of Reuters Ltd.
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