-- Democrats.com Exclusive --

George W. Bush's
Military Records Have Vanished!

New York, November 6, 9 p.m. EST: On the eve of the Presidential election, George W. Bush's military records cannot be found.

Bush's records are permanently stored at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. According to Melanie Aitken, an NPRC official, Bush's file was sent in June to the Air Reserve Personnel Center (ARPC) in Denver Colorado, to help officials there answer reporters' questions about Bush's military service.

According to Maj. Tom Deall, Public Affairs Officer of the Air Reserve Personnel Center, ARPC received the file in June and kept it in Denver until August, when it was sent back to NPRC in St. Louis using Federal Express.

According to Aitken, the Federal Express shipment was never received.

Democrats.com discovered the files had vanished this afternoon while filing a Freedom of Information Act request seeking information from the Bush file that has not previously been disclosed. In particular, Democrats.com is looking for Bush's retirement and payment records, to determine whether Bush actually reported for duty after April of 1972, when Bush suddenly stopped flying with two full years left on his 6-year obligation.

Democrats.com is an independent news and community Web site for America's 100 million Democrats, and is not affiliated with the Presidential campaign of Al Gore.

On October 4, Democrats.com published a major expose about Bush's military service, called The Smoking Jet. The expose was written by Robert A. Rogers, retired 1st Lt. Mission Pilot in the Air National Guard, and was based on a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Rogers and Martin Heldt, who wrote an expose on Bush's "missing year" for TomPaine.com.

On Saturday, Democrats.com revealed that Bush's military records may have been altered by top Bush aides led by Dan Bartlett to conceal Bush's grounding and subsequent absence from duty.

Democrats.com initially filed its request this afternoon with the NPRC in St. Louis. After a preliminary search, NPRC told Democrats.com to file its request with the ARPC in Denver because the records were sent there in June. When Democrats.com filed its request later this afternoon with the ARPC, officials there reported the records had been sent back to St. Louis in August. Checking back with NPRC in St. Louis, Democrats.com discovered that the file had never been received.

Bush's military records have been at the center of a major controversy in the final week of the campaign. A number of news organizations, including the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, TomPaine.com, and Democrats.com have reported that Bush was grounded from flight in 1972 without explanation. In addition, Bush's official record shows no evidence that he reported for duty after his grounding.

Democrats.com has speculated that Bush was grounded from flight because of substance abuse problems. This theory was reinforced by the recent revelation that Bush was arrested for DUI in 1976.

The subsequent gap in Bush's military service - called "AWOL" by many - was publicized in recent days by Senators Bob Kerrey, Daniel Inouye, Max Cleland, and John Kerry. During a press conference on Thursday, Inouye said: "The question is where were you, Governor Bush? ... During my service, if I missed training for two years, at the least, I would have been court-martialed. I would have been placed in prison."

The Bush campaign has insisted that two unsigned documents - one of which is torn and undated and cannot be identified as belonging to George W. Bush - prove that Bush reported for duty.

Several news organizations, most notably the New York Times and George Magazine, have accepted these documents as authentic. Democrats.com is trying to determine the authenticity of these documents by looking for corroborating retirment and earnings statements, which have not previously been sought by reporters.

Officials at ARPC in Denver have promised to locate the Federal Express tracking documents "first thing in the morning" on Election Day.

Reporters and citizens who wish to be kept informed about the progress of this search should subscribe to the Democrats.com Daily News, (mailto:dem-daily-subscribe@egroups.com) where updates will be posted as soon as they become available.