Questions remain about President Bush's long-ago service in the Texas
Air National Guard. But the basic outline of his Guard service is not
in dispute: After a year in flight school, Bush spent five months
learning how to fly an F-102 fighter-interceptor and then 22 months as
a part-time pilot. He stopped flying in April 1972 -- 30 months before
his formal commitment would normally have ended. Nonetheless, the
biography of Bush on the US State Department's website credits him with
almost six years in the F-102's cockpit -- two years on active duty
flying the plane and nearly four more years of part-time service as an
F-102 pilot. After the 2000 election, when evidence of Bush's
abbreviated flying career and his propensity to miss required drills
became public, the presidential biography written for the White House
website made no mention of the period of Bush's service, only that he
served as an F-102 pilot.[more ]
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