The documents, in the form of annual retirement â€point summaries†and poorly photocopied payroll records, indicate that Bush received credit for nine days of active duty between May 1972 and May 1973, the period that Democrats have cited as evidence that he failed to meet his military responsibilities.
The White House promised clearer copies of the payroll records later Tuesday afternoon.
The point summaries had previously been released, but as recently as Monday the White House had indicated that it knew of no additional records to document Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard. McClellan said the White House learned of the pay records Monday night.
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McClellan said he did not know whether tax returns for 1972 and 1973 still existed to substantiate that Bush actually was paid, as the payroll records indicated. He said additional information would be disclosed if it came to light.
Indicating the hold the issue has taken on the campaign, McClellan came under nearly a half-hour of intense questioning about Bush’s Guard service.
At one point, he sidestepped four consecutive questions about why medical records that Bush would have had to have maintained during his service could not be produced, leading a frustrated reporter to demand to know why McClellan would not directly answer his question.
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During the Vietnam War, Guard units were rarely called up, and “the Reserves and the Guard acquired reputations as draft havens for relatively affluent young white men,†the Air National Guard says in a history posted on its Web site.
Bush acknowledged in an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press†that he had not volunteered to go to Vietnam, and he called the war a “political war.†But he said he supported the government and would have gone had his Guard unit been called. “I put in my time, proudly so,†he said.
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Questions have been raised about whether family connections helped Bush get into the Guard when there were waiting lists for what was seen as an easy billet. Bush says no one in his family pulled strings and that he got in because others didn’t want to commit to the almost two years of active duty required for fighter pilot training.
A central issue is whether he showed up for duty while assigned to Guard units in Alabama in 1972. “There may be no evidence, but I did report,†Bush said on “Meet the Press.†“Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been honorably discharged.â€
Another question is why he was allowed to end Guard duty about six months early to attend Harvard Business School. Bush said on NBC that he had “worked it out with the military. And I’m just telling you, I did my duty.â€
