Fear of Flying

Via BoP comes a new first-hand account of why Clueless Leader abandoned his post at TANG in 1972:

Janet Linke has been thinking about George W. Bush a lot lately. Thirty-two years ago, her late husband Jan Peter Linke served briefly in the Texas Air National Guard's 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. Bush's service in the same squadron has gotten plenty of mention in an election year when what you did during the Vietnam War is suddenly a litmus test of character. But Linke claims she knows a part of the story that nobody has mentioned.

According to Linke, a Jacksonville resident and artist, Bush's flying career was permanently disabled by a crippling fear of flying.

Linke's husband was admitted to the Texas Guard in the summer of 1972 to replace Bush. President [sic] Bush has said that he stopped flying fighter jets because the Alabama Guard unit didn't have jets, and he wanted to transfer to Alabama in order to work on a political campaign. But Linke says she heard a different story from her husband and Bush's squad commander, the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. Shortly after her husband joined the Texas unit, Linke says, the couple discussed Bush's service with Killian at a social event.

Contrary to some news reports that suggest Killian admired Bush, Linke says the officer didn't have much use for the young Lieutenant. He mentioned that Bush appeared to have a drinking problem, she recalls, but he was most offended by another incapacity: his fear of flying. According to Linke, Killian said Bush was grounded in his fourth year of flying after he became incapable of flying or properly landing a plane.

"He was mucking up bad, Killian told us," Linke says. "He just became afraid to fly."

Wow! That explains a lot. Like why CL spent most of early '72 flying second seat in a trainer rather than solo.

George W. Bush began flying a two-seat training jet more frequently and twice required multiple attempts to land a one-seat fighter in the weeks just before he quit flying for the Texas Air National Guard in 1972, his pilot logs show. The logs show Bush flew nine times in T-33 trainers in February and March 1972, including eight times in one week and four of those only as a co-pilot. Bush, then a first lieutenant, flew in T-33s only twice in the previous six months and three times in the year ending July 31, 1971.

Or why he seemed to be having trouble with landings just before he quit altogether.

The logs also show that Bush, who throughout his career usually landed his jet with a single pass, required two passes to land the F-102A fighter on March 12 and April 10, 1972. His last flight as an Air National Guard pilot cam,e six days later .

Our Hero?

Comments

[50 Pound Brian]

Putting words into the mouth of a dead person who cannot confirm or deny the statements appears to be a common trait among Bush bashers.

Neither the comments by Janet Linke or the fake CBS memos would be admissible in a court of law. They wouldn't get out of an evidentiary hearing.

People who use this type of hearsay, fake evidence to make a point have no credibility in their arguments.

Bush bashers and liberals are more intellectually deficient that I first thought.

[NoBSjoe]

Facts are facts. Bush didn't fly after 1972. He was replaced in the Texas Air National Guard by Janet Linke's husband. Would the Guard replace Bush if they were phasing out his plane or if they didn't need pilots? Or is the story about why he missed his physical going to change now? Maybe the fact that his buddy and fellow Saudi representative James Bath was also suspended for the same reason a month later can shed some light on the subject. Why don't you intellectually superior neo-cons tell us about it?