BUSH A NO-SHOW AT ALABAMA BASE

BUSH A NO-SHOW AT ALABAMA BASE, SAYS MEMPHIAN
FedEx Pilot Bob Mintz, backed up by a Carolina colleague, recalls no Dubya
at Dannelly AFB in 1972.

Jackson Baker | 2/12/2004

MEMPHIS – Two members of the Air National Guard unit that President George
W. Bush allegedly served with as a young Guard flyer in 1972 had been told
to expect him and were on the lookout for him. He never showed, however; of
that both Bob Mintz and Paul Bishop are certain. The question of Bush’s
presence in 1972 at Dannelly Air National Guard base in Montgomery, Alabama
– or the lack of it – has become an issue in the 2004 presidential campaign.
Recalls Memphian Mintz, now 62: “I remember that I heard someone was coming
to drill with us from Texas. And it was implied that it was somebody with
political influence. I was a young bachelor then. I was looking for somebody
to prowl around with.” But, says Mintz, that “somebody” -- better known to
the world now as the president of the United States -- never showed up at
Dannelly in 1972. Nor in 1973, nor at any time that Mintz, a FedEx pilot now
and an Eastern Airlines pilot then, when he was a reserve first lieutenant
at Dannelly, can remember. “And I was looking for him,” repeated Mintz, who
said that he assumed that Bush “changed his mind and went somewhere else” to
do his substitute drill. It was not “somewhere else,” however, but the 187th
Air National Guard Tactical squadron at Dannelly to which the young Texas
flyer had requested transfer from his regular Texas unit – the reason being
Bush’s wish to work in Alabama on the ultimately unsuccessful U.S. Senate
campaign of family friend Winton "Red" Blount.
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