So what happens when you miss National Guard mettings, etc.

[trumad]

Let Fred Grimm of the Maimi Herald tell you...

<snip>
Maybe I'd have trouble convincing a military-records depot to locate the records of Specialist Fourth Class Grimm of the 479th Ordinance. The president ought to have more clout. Even in faraway Colorado.

Bush, we do know, managed to get into the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, just nine days before his college draft deferment expired. The Globe reported that Bush leaped over 500 other would-be Guardsmen to the front of the line.

At that time, with the Vietnam War looming, a spot in a reserve or Guard unit was a coveted alternative to getting drafted. Highly coveted. That same year, I reported to the FBI that the cadre running my piddling Army Reserve unit was accepting bribes to push recruits to the head of the line.

THREAT OF WAR

Once in, banishment to the real Army was the threat that kept us in line and on time. Show up late, it was one unexcused absence. Show up without an acceptable haircut or with unshined boots -- another unexcused absence. Miss a day, two absences. Miss the whole weekend, four. Five unexcused absences, they drummed you out of the reserves or the Guard, into active duty and Vietnam.

Several of my buddies were shipped out, including one whose final, deciding absence was levied for shaggy hair.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/fred_grimm/7915650.htm

[GOPisEvil]

1. No, no...that's what happens when NORMAL people skip Guard duty...

People like * can skate by being shipped to some other cushy post to serve their "penalty". The only way * was going to Vietnam was if he ASKED to go, like one Albert Gore, Jr. did...

[Maeve]

2. Another view--Richard Cohen

Who was also a Guardsman during Vietnam:

During the Vietnam War, I was what filmmaker Michael Moore would call a "deserter." Along with President Bush and countless other young men, I joined the National Guard, did my six months of active duty (basic training, etc.) and then returned to my home unit, where I eventually dropped from sight. In the end, just like President Bush, I got an honorable discharge. But unlike President Bush, I have just told the truth about my service. He hasn't.
At least I don't think so. Nothing about Bush during that period -- not his drinking, not his partying -- suggests that he was a consistently conscientious member of the Texas or Alabama Air National Guard. As it happens, there are no records to show that Bush reported for duty during the summer and fall of 1972. Nonetheless, Bush insists he was where he was supposed to be -- "Otherwise I wouldn't have been honorably discharged," Bush told Tim Russert. Please, sir, don't make me laugh.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27178-2004Feb9.html