...along with the major one.
I know I'm beating a dead horse, but dang!
The ignorance of military matters strikes the MSM and the moonbats yet again.
After weeks of denigration of the Democratic challenger’s Vietnam war record, Mr Kerry’s backers [an unnamed group] have responded with allegations against the President - including the claim that he was once photographed in uniform wearing a medal ribbon he had not earned.
As polls showed that Mr Bush had edged ahead of Mr Kerry for the first time, a pro-Kerry organisation labelled the President an “impostor” over the photograph, taken in 1970 and discovered in his father’s Presidential Library in Houston, Texas.
The ribbon is an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award [the ribbon on LT Bush's right in the photo] - which was not awarded to the 111th Fighter Intercept Squadron in which Mr Bush served until 1975, five years after the photograph was taken, according to the group US War Report.
Each military member belongs to at least two units before being assigned to the first unit where he/she will perform his/her duty: the basic training unit and the technical training unit(s). Training units are separate from operational units. But this never occurred to the Telegraph or the members of this “unnamed group.” Nor did it occur to them to go to the source (the AF) and ask, not until later.
CHICAGO, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- The Air Force has knocked down allegations by a Web site that said President Bush, when serving as an officer in the Texas Air National Guard, wore a ribbon he was not authorized to wear -- a military offense that could have led to a bad-conduct discharge from the service if true.
The original story was offered to United Press International during late August by operatives from Democrats.com, an Internet activist group whose founder had earlier this year served as a source for The Boston Globe and other media outlets on stories about Bush's service in the guard in the 1960s and 1970s.
A summary of the story was also posted on the DemocraticUnderground.com Web site by Walt Starr of Democrats.com last month, along with a photo from the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library of Lt. George W. Bush wearing the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award. [SNIP]
An e-mail message to UPI on Aug. 27 from Bob Fertik, founder of Democrats.com, stated, "Walt Starr called the Air Force and discovered that the only AFOUA given to Bush's unit was in 1975 -- five years after the photo. Case closed!"
The Air Force and the White House last week in interviews with UPI said the allegations were misleading. White House spokesman Trent Duffy referred UPI to the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Colorado where Technical Sgt. Rob Mims is the spokesman.
Mims said the claims were "not true. I verified that (Thursday). Lieutenant Bush received Air Force Outstanding Unit Award while he was in basic training with the 3724th Basic Military Training Squadron at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas."And guess what! Walt Starr and friends still won’t buy it! (Careful, jumping into these waters is like wading into a piranha pool.) I’m wondering whether Mr. Starr left out the key part of his second query to the AF: the year.
When the truth is different from what you believe, you either change your opinion or you lose your mind.
(Thanks to the Command Post)
