This is an explanation of the techniques I used to compare the
Killian memos to the official Bush records that had been made public
over the years. Before we aired our story on September 8, 2004,
I had essentially tried to marry the Killian documents with the
official record. I was looking for anything that didn’t fit:
dates, names, references to rank, and a variety of other factors.
I was looking for a stopper, a place where the Killian memos clashed
with the official record, something that would indicate to me that
the new memos weren’t real.
I couldn’t find it. I wanted the panel to know that far from
simply taking documents and rushing them onto the air, we had done
a complicated and multifaceted check on how these new documents
fit with the ones we knew to be real, and used that comparison in
making a judgment that the story was ready to air.
CBS 001195 2
February 1972 KILLIAN TO HARRIS
This memo is addressed to Maj. William Harris, Killian’s
second in command, and the man responsible for writing the Officer
Efficiency Training Reports (OETRs) for pilots in the unit.
The memo asks Harris to “Update me as soon
as possible on flight certifications. Specifically—Bath
and Bush.”
When we aired this story, we knew something that
had not yet been reported: that in February 1972, Lieutenant Bush
had started having trouble landing his F-102. In fact, Lieutenant
Bush had been bumped back to the T-33, a training plane. Then
he was bumped back to the copilot position on the T-33. Then he
began logging additional time in the flight simulator. This was
a huge change from his previous flight logs and training pattern
in 1970–1971.
The February date on this memo, coupled with what
we knew about the February flight difficulties Lieutenant Bush
was having, underscored the likelihood that the content of this
memo was authentic.
This memo was given to Mike Smith by Bill Burkett
on Sunday, September 5. I did not air this document, primarily
because I felt it required too much explanation and it also raised
the name of James Bath, a controversial and politically volatile
figure in Bush’s background.
USA Today got this same document
from Burkett and chose to run it in their story on September 9.
> View
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CBS 001856–001857 ASSOCIATED
PRESS REPORT ON SEPTEMBER 10, 2004
This is a copy of an Associated Press analysis of
then-lieutenant Bush’s downward spiral in flight performance,
beginning in February 1972. There was no sharing between AP and
CBS of the facts
complied in this report or in our story that aired on September
8, 2004.
> View
documents
CBS 001196 4
May 1972 ORDER TO TAKE PHYSICAL BY
MAY 1972
This is a Killian memo given to Mike Smith by Bill
Burkett on Sunday, September 5.
Dated May 4, 1972, the document is a direct order
for Lieutenant Bush to report for a physical on May 14. That date
is very close to the May dates when his two previous annual flight
physicals were completed in 1970 and 1971.
The address used for Bush is his parents’
home, the official address used for much of his military documentation.
The address of the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron is correct.
The Air Force anual regulation referred to as AFM 35-13 is the
appropriate regulation for this order, according to the Air Force
Manual in use in 1972.
Document and handwriting analyst Marcel Matley
felt very strongly that this signature was a classic Killian signature,
where the lieutenant colonel had a habit of turning the tail of
the “y” at the end of Jerry to the top of the “K”
on Killian.
The content of this document is also supported by
Gen. Bobby Hodges and later, by Marian Carr Knox. Both said that
Colonel Killian fully embraced the requirement of an annual flight
physical and Ms. Knox said she remembered Colonel Killian issuing
this order.
The Hodges and Knox confirmations coalesce in a
most compelling fashion. In the case of Hodges, his emphatic assurance
that Colonel Killian’s feelings are accurately reflected
in the content of the memorandum was expressed telephonically,
without the distraction, if you will, of any document. He simply
states, without equivocation, that Killian ordered Lieutenant
Bush to take his annual physical. Ms. Knox, not withstanding her
focus on the typed documents, likewise assures that Killian ordered
Lieutenant Bush to take his flight physical. In each instance,
the content of their recollections dovetails with the document.
> View
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CBS 001193 19
May 1972 MEMO TO FILE
This is a Killian memo given to Mike Smith by Bill
Burkett on Sunday, September 5.
This purports to be a Memo to File, so the fact
the format is not official is not surprising. Ms. Knox confirmed
that Colonel Killian had a separate personal file locked in this
top drawer where he kept notes like this to himself.
This document is dated May 19, 1972.
The subject: Discussion with First Lieutenant Bush.
This would have been written five days after Lieutenant
Bush had missed the physical he was ordered to take on May 14.
The memo says that Killian and Bush “discussed
options of how Bush can get out of coming to drill from now through
November.” Killian suggests three months of equivalent training
(ET), which was the
maximum allowed in the Guard at that time, or a transfer to another
unit. The rest of the first paragraph fits with what is known
about Lieutenant Bush’s desire to go to Alabama to work
on the Blount campaign.
The second paragraph references talking about “getting
his flight physical situation fixed before his date.” This
is completely in line with what we know about Texas Air Guard
pilot procedure, wherein a pilot must have his flight physical
completed before his birthday. In Lieutenant Bush’s case,
that would be July 6.
Later in the memo, Killian “advised him of
our investment in him and his commitment.” That advice has
not been memorialized in any other Bush-related documents, but
it is something that every pilot I
have spoken to has told me is part of a commander’s duty
when faced with a pilot who was not performing or was underperforming:
to remind the individual of the heavy financial investment that
the U.S. military has made in him. The memo also says that Killian
reminded him of his “commitment” . . . the amount
of time Lieutenant Bush promised to fly for the USAF/Texas Air
National Guard. It is mandatory for a commander to state this
to a pilot who is in a situation of this sort, according to countless
other officers I have spoken with.
Killian mentions that “I told him I had to
have written acceptance before he would be transferred.”
The last line of the memo indicates that Killian
“think[s] he’s also talking to someone upstairs.”
The next official document we have in TAB 57 speaks to this.
> View
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CBS001297 26
May 1972 ACCEPTANCE OF APPLICATION
FOR ASSIGNMENT
This official document, which I believe
I received in a FOIA in 1999, shows that just one week
after Killian asked for “written acceptance,” Lieutenant
Bush appears to have gotten it. Anyone familiar with the molasses-like
movement of paper in the military will tell you that this is an
extraordinarily swift action on the part of the Alabama unit led
by Reese Bricken. The 9921 Air Reserve Squadron was a postal unit,
not a ready reserve unit.
> View
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CBS 002071 2
June and 5 June 1972 SENIOR OFFICER
APPROVALS OF ASSIGNMENT
This is an official document that I received
through a FOIA in either 1999 or 2000.
It basically marks the approval of two senior officers,
one in Austin and another in Houston, for Lieutenant Bush to go
to the 9921 Air Reserve Squadron and it is dated the second and
fifth of June.
By this time, Lieutenant Bush had already cleared
the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron base and was no longer
performing his duties there.
> View
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CBS 002070 31
July 1972 REJECTION OF ASSIGNMENT
This is an official document obtained
through a 1999 FOIA request.
Marked July 31, it is the Air Force’s official
response to Lieutenant Bush’s planned move to the 9921.
The Air Force turns down the request, saying that “a review
of his Master Personnel Record shows he has a Military Service
Obligation until 26 May 1974.” It goes on to say that “an
obligated Reservist can be assigned to a specific Ready Reserve
position only. Therefore, he is ineligible for assignment to an
Air Reserve Squadron.”
So, Lieutenant Bush’s transfer was turned
down . . . even though he had already been gone from his unit
since April or May. He had not had his physical by his birthday
of July 6 and was no longer on flight status or assigned to any
unit.
> View
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CBS 001192 1
August 1972 MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD
This is a Killian memo I received from Bill Burkett
on Thursday, September 2.
It is dated August 1, 1972 . . . just one day after
the previous official document (CBS 002070) turning down Bush’s
transfer to Alabama.
This Memorandum For Record includes Lieutenant Bush’s
correct service number, something that is regularly redacted on
many official documents . . . another point that serves to underscore
the reliability of the document.
The memo says that “On this date I ordered
that Lt. Bush be suspended from flight status due to failure to
perform to USAF/TexANG standards and failure to meet annual physical
examination (flight) as ordered.” The reference to “as
ordered” is consistent with the order we saw earlier in
Killian memo CBS 001196. So there is consistency within the Killian
memos themselves.
In paragraph 2, Killian calls for a flight review
board, a very important USAF requirement in the grounding
of any pilot under any circumstances. This call for a review board
has never been referenced in any other official document in President
Bush’s records.
In paragraph 3, Killian says that he “recommended
transfer of this officer to the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron in
May and forwarded his AF Form 1288 to 147th Ftr Intercp Gp headquarters.
The transfer was not allowed.”
Bush’s attempted and aborted transfer to
the 9921 has not been a highlighted or discussed or generally
reported part of the president’s service story. The fact
that it is mentioned here is another small but key point that
shows that these documents are based in fact, sometimes even obscure
fact.
In his last paragraph, Killian “suggested
that we fill this critical billet with a more seasoned pilot from
the list of qualified Vietnam pilots that have rotated.”
After our story aired, a woman named Janet Linke
came forward to say that her husband, an F-102 pilot who had rotated
out of active duty in Europe and joined an Air National Group
in Florida, where he was recruited to take Bush’s place
in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, and that Killian told
her that “Lieutenant Bush just had not wanted to fly anymore.”
That account was published in a number of newspapers, including
The Nation, whose story was written by Russ Baker.
> View
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CBS 001141 29
September 1972 CONFIRMATION OF ORDERS
This is an official document I received
in 1999, which states that on “Verbal orders of the Comdr
on 1 Aug 72 suspending 1st LT. George W (Bush) . . . from flying
status . . . Reason for Suspension: Failure to [acc]omplish annual
medical examination.”
The commander referred to in this document is Jerry
Killian, Lieutenant Bush’s commander.
The August 1, 1972, date matches the suspension
order by Killian in CBS 001192.
> View
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CBS 002072 6
September and 8 September TURNDOWN
OF BUSH REQUEST FOR TRANSFER TO 9921ST IN ALABAMA
This is an official document I received
through a FOIA request in 1999 or 2000.
The office of the Texas Air National Guard Adjutant
General is pointing out in this document that Lieutenant Bush
has been turned down on his request for a transfer to the 9921st
in Alabama.
At the top of the document, there is a reference
to the July 31, 1973 Air Force denial of Bush’s transfer
(CBS 002070).
Part of the document reads that “attention
is invited to basic communication”; in military speak, the
adjutant general is telling the commander in charge of the 147th
to pay attention to the fact that Bush’s
transfer to the 9921st has been turned down, and as a consequence,
Lieutenant Bush is still under the command of the 147th.
Dated August 3, 1972, it comes just two days after
Bush’s flight status has been suspended and just three days
after he was formally denied transfer to the 9921st in Alabama.
> View
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CBS 001022 6
September and 8 September 1972 PERMISSION
TO GRANT EQUIVALENT TRAINING WITH THE 187TH IN ALABAMA UNIT
This is an official document I received
through a FOIA request in 1999 or 2000. It is an approval dated
September 6, 1972 and September 8, 1972 from Lt. Col. Jerry Killian
and then–Col. Gen. Bobby
Hodges for Lieutenant Bush to be allowed to do Equivalent Training
with the 187th in Alabama.
By this time, Lieutenant Bush has been gone from
the 111th since April or May and has still not landed in an approved
transfer or equivalent training slot.
> View
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CBS 002069 24
June 1973 KILLIAN TO “SIR”
It is unclear to whom the memo is addressed, but
clearly it is intended for someone north of Killian in the chain
of command.
This June 24, 1973 memo appears to be addressed
to someone who had a staffer call Killian concerning the evaluation
or Officer Effi ciency Training Report on then-lieutenant Bush.
By this time, Lieutenant Bush had been away from
his unit for nearly a year.
The reference in that “Neither Lt. Col Harris
or [sic] I feel we can rate 1st Lt. Bush since he was not training
with the 111th since April 1972” is significant. It was
reported recently for the first time, that Bush’s last flight
in an F-102 was on April 16, 1972. This is a document I received
from Bill Burkett on September 2. I did not use this document
on the air. USA Today, which also received the document from Burkett,
did use it on their Web site linking to their story on September
9.
The memo includes a crucial line in it, however—when
Killian says “His recent activity is outside the rating
period,” a point that becomes important when read with the
next official document.
> View
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CBS 001077 STATEMENT
OF POINTS EARNED BY DATE
This is an official document I received
through a FOIA request in 1999 or 2000.
It is a Statement of Points Earned by Lieutenant
Bush . . . beginning May 29, 1973, when he returned to his unit,
the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in Houston.
In the previous Killian document, when Colonel
Killian references the “recent activity is out side his
rating period,” it is clear tha t the May ’73 activity
is what he is referencing.
Officer Efficiency Training Reports or OETRs are
done on a time period that runs roughly from April 30 of one year
to May 1 of the next year.
Lieutenant Bush’s reappearance in late May
of 1973 did not fit into the rating period for which Killian was
being asked to evaluate Bush.
> View
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CBS 002075 29
June 1973
This is an official Air Force document
demanding that ratings (an OETR) be entered on Lieutenant Bush
during his rating period from 1 May 1972 to 30 April 1973.
The document asks that an “AF FM 77a [an
OETR] should be requested from the training unit so that this
officer can be rated in the position he held. This officer should
have been reassigned in May since
he is no longer training with his unit of assignment.”
> View
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CBS 001194 18
August 1973 MEMO TO FILE
This is a memo that Mike Smith got from Bill Burkett
on September 5.
It is a memo to file, marked “CYA” .
. . and the format is quite informal. The date is August 18, 1973,
long after the May date when Lieutenant Bush’s evaluation
report was due and more than a month since the Air Force document
CBS00275 had arrived at Ellington Air Base.
In this informal memorandum, Killian says that
“Staudt has obviously pressured Hodges” about Bush.
And Killian says “Harris gave me a message today from Grp
regarding Bush’s OETR.” He writes that “Staudt
is pushing to sugarcoat it.” It goes on: “Bush wasn’t
here during rating period and I don’t have any feedback
from the 187th. I will not rate. Austin is not happy today, either.”
By August 1973, Buck Staudt had formally left the
Guard, but was working as an executive pilot for Conoco Oil Company,
in a position based at Ellington Field. He was also on the Houston
Chamber
of Commerce Aviation Committee, a group he would eventually chair.
Because the city of Houston owns the land on which Ellington Field
sits, city politics and business interactions were crucial to
the way the decisions were made about how the Texas Air National
Guard and Ellington Field were operated logistically.
Staudt was on base regularly and wielding as much
or more clout than he had in his days in the Guard.
Robert Strong told me that even after Staudt’s
retirement, “Bobby Hodges wouldn’t go to the bathroom
without Staudt’s permission.” Others backed up this
assessment of Staudt’s influence after he left the Guard.
And the memo itself mentions that “Austin
is not happy today, either,” a reference to the Texas Air
Guard adjutant general position Staudt held previously in Austin.
So there is no conflict within this
memo, either to Staudt being out of Austin and into retirement
or still wielding great influence.
At the end of the memo, Killian says, “I’ll
backdate, but won’t rate.”That is borne out in the
next official document..
> View
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CBS 001305 2
May 1973 RATING FORM
This odd official document has always
been a source of interest for reporters. Why was there not a rating?
Without a rating, why was any paperwork filled out at all? Why
would the 111th even be doing an evaluation if Lieutenant Bush
had been in Alabama?
The rating says simply “Lt. Bush has not
been observed at this unit for the period of report. . . .
“He cleared this base on 15 May 1972 and
has been performing equivalent duty with the 187 Tac Recon Gp,
Dannelly ANG Base, Alabama.”
By the way, the abbreviation Killian uses for Group
in this memo, “Gp,” was one of the many minor criticisms
leveled at the Killian memos for being wrong in terms of form.
Clearly, if Killian used the same abbreviation in this official
document, it would appear that this was a normal form for him.
Also, at the bottom of the page, you can see that
the evaluation is dated May 2, 1973 . . . backdated, just as the
Killian memo said it would be. Not rated, just as the Killian
memo said it would be.
> View
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CBS 001143 Explanation
of Non-Rating for 1 May 1972 Through 30 April 1973
This is an official document I got in
1999 or 2000. This appears to be a response of some kind of a
rejection or request for further information of the Killian nonrating
for Lieutenant Bush dated May 2,
1973—a document that, according to the Killian memos, was
actually written in August 1973.
Major Rufus Martin, who served under General Bobby
Hodges in the 147th, filed this new document and sent it to the
Air Force. This one claims that Bush was “not rated for
the period 1 May 1972 through 30 April 1973.” Then he goes
on to say, “Report for this period not available for administrative
reasons.”
Most interesting is the date on which Rufus Martin
signed this. It is not back in July or August. It is on November
12, 1973, a date which falls in line with the August memo Killian
wrote saying he would not rate, but would backdate.
This November date is particularly telling in revealing
the monthslong back and forth between the Texas Air National Guard
and the Air Force on trying to paper over the problems with then-lieutenant
Bush’s service between 1972 and 1973.
> View
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CBS 002073 ASSOCIATED
PRESS STORY: FULLER PICTURE OF GUARD YEARS EMERGES
This is an Associated Press story that underscores
the special treatment that Lieutenant Bush received in Texas Air
National Guard. There is nothing in this story that varies in
any way from the information contained in either the official
documents or the Killian memos.
CBS and AP did not collaborate on their respective
Guard stories.
> View
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These internal letters and memos were photocopied at Camp Mabry
in Austin, Texas by researcher Steven Jones in the fall of 2004.
All materials came from the Adjutant General's communication files.
They demonstrate a number of truths about the Texas Air National
Guard during the Vietnam War; that Guard and state government officials
were under terrible pressure to let more young people into the Guard
and that the pressure did not abate as the war went on.
There are references here to the various rules and regulations
in place for Guard service at the time, some of which were not applied
in the case of George W. Bush.
These memos also demonstrate a variety of format styles and typefaces,
including proportional spacing and right hand signature blocks,
which are common in the Killian documents.
DOCUMENT #1
This August 1969 letter from General Ross Ayers,
the Texas National Guard Adjutant General was written to someone
in the Texas Governor's office. The letter outlines the requirements
for someone to get into the Texas National Guard, including the
mandatory signing up on a waiting list.
The letter states that anyone "who is 22 years
old, without prior military service is in the last priority."
George W. Bush turned 22 in July 1968, three months after joining
the Guard.
The letter also states that no one has been accepted
for Officer Candidate School "until he has had six months
basic training." George W. Bush was able to forgo the 6 months
of basic training go directly forward.
The letter appears to demonstrate proportional spacing
and is written on a piece of paper without a letterhead.
> View
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DOCUMENT #2
This collection of 1969 letters relates to one National
Guard hopeful's case.
It begins with a letter from a Texas businessman
who wrote Governor Preston Smith about his son's hope to be in
the National Guard. Time is drawing short. The young man has already
received notice from the Draft Board to report for his physical.
Governor Preston Smith forwards the letter to the
Adjutant General's office, along with a note declaring that the
young man's father is a "very good friend of mine."
General Buck Staudt, Bush's former commander, responds
to General Ayers in a "MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD," the same
heading used on one of the Killian documents. Like the Killian
memos, this document is done without letterhead. It states that
there are 40 people ahead of the young man on the waiting list.
General Ayers writes back to Governor that there
is a long line ahead of his friend's son and that the total waiting
list at Ellington contains 755 names. Ayers suggests making sure
that the young man mentions "any special skills that were
not revealed on his initial application."
> View
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DOCUMENT #4
Governor Preston Smith replies to a request from
a friend of the Governor about whether the Governor could help
the son of a friend with admittance into the Guard. The letter
writer asks specifically whether the Governor "could do anything
to get his son, who is twenty-one, in the Air National Guard."
In this June 1969 letter he says that the "Air
National Guard has over 2000 applications on file and I do not
know what the prospects are at this time for the... boy to be
accepted."
Not only were the men running the Guard or state
government being pressured from all sides to help young men get
in, there were thousands of young men filling out applications
and going onto waiting lists. This is one of the few written references
to the actual number of Air National Guard applications on file
that I have ever seen.
> View
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DOCUMENT #5
This is a request to Lieutenant Colonel Bobby Hodges
for accepting an accelerated enlistment application into the Guard.
The application was approved in June 1969 at the height of the
Vietnam War, even though the young man applying was not a flight
surgeon or does not appear to meet the some of the other special
qualifications supposedly required for this kind of acceptance.
George W. Bush also received an accelerated enlistment.
According to critics of the Guard system, this was one of the
ways that the privileged were able to circumvent the waiting lists
and go to the head of the line.
> View
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DOCUMENT #6
This is a document from the time that the Killian
memos were purportedly written. There is no letterhead, as this
is an internal memo. The form lists the same kind of numeric bullet
points as the Killian memos and the signature block is on the
right side, although unsigned. It is not the kind of formal rigidly
formatted document critics of the CBS story insisted we should
have expected the Killian memos to be.
> View
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DOCUMENT #7
This is a letter from Texas Guard Adjutant General
Ross Ayers to then-Congressman George Bush. Bush has apparently
written asking how a constituent's son could get into the specific
Guard unit that he wanted to be in.
General Ayers replies that there are already 700
people on the waiting list who "had the idea sooner that
than" this man's son. Ayers also points out that the "regulations
and law prohibit us giving any favorable treatment to an individual
applicant." By the time this letter was written, Congressman
Bush's son, George W. Bush, was already in pilot training.
> View
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DOCUMENT #8
This is a document requesting the removal of Lt.
Colonel James Rose from the Texas Air National Guard. Rose had
been a General in charge of the Air Guard and an ally of Lt. Governor
Ben Barnes, when Barnes says he believes he asked Rose to intercede
and help George W. Bush get a position with the Guard.
Rose appears to have been forced out of the Guard
for political reasons in one of the organization's recurring coups.
> View
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DOCUMENT #9
This is an
angry letter of resignation from Polly Coffin, General Rose's
longtime secretary. When Rose was ousted as the head of the Air
Guard in 1971, she quit too, leaving behind this scathing letter
complaining about the politicizing of the Guard and the Guard
personnel.
She wrote "It is virtually impossible
at times for a person to do his job without fear of losing his
job. ..... It is a sad situation when even secretaries and clerks
work in constant fear of losing their jobs for no rhyme or reason
that they can see."
> View
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DOCUMENT #10
The memos to file and internal communications include
documents like this, insights into the kids of petty political
situations that apparently were just part of the Texas Guard's
atmospherics. This memo from General Ross Ayers appears to be
mitigating some kind of clash between men, which included the
dictum that " [an officer] is to apologize to [a sargeant]
for having opened his locked desk and gone through his personal
papers." This was in May 1971 when the Vietnam War was far
from over.
> View
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DOCUMENT #11
This is a fascinating warning from National Guard
headquarters for pilots to stop logging flight hours when they
were merely acting as co-pilots rather than flying the craft.
The memo refers specifically to "increasing
incidence of incorrect logging of flight time" and incidents
that include "aviators logging copilot time while riding
as a passenger and not occupying a crew station in the aircraft."
> View
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DOCUMENT #12
These letters offer another example of the pressure
on officials in the Texas Air National Guard to accept young men
with connections. The first letter here is written by an aide
in the Governor's office. It says that Democrat Bob Bullock gave
this letter to him. Bullock would gain national fame years later
as the man from across the aisle who embraced George W. Bush in
his race for the White House. For decades in Texas, the name Bob
Bullock meant something else. He was primarily known as a political
mover and shaker who knew how to get things done. That's what
he appears to be doing here, attempting to help a friend get is
son a pilot spot in the Air National Guard.
The letters of response show how difficult it was
to get one of those positions.
> View
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