Some Bush records lost, Pentagon says

WASHINGTON — Military payroll records that could more fully document President Bush’s whereabouts during his service in the Texas Air National Guard were inadvertently destroyed, according to the Pentagon.

In a letter responding to a freedom of information request by the Associated Press, the Defense Department said that microfilm containing the pertinent National Guard payroll records was damaged and could not be salvaged. The damaged material included payroll records for the first quarter of 1969 and the third quarter of 1972.

“President Bush’s payroll records for those two quarters were among the records destroyed,” wrote C.Y. Talbott, of the Pentagon’s Freedom of Information and Security Review section. “Searches for back-up paper copies of the missing records were unsuccessful.”

Presidential spokeswoman Claire Buchan said Friday there was nothing new in the letter. “When we put out records in February, we indicated that third-quarter of 1972 records were lost” when the microfilm was destroyed, she said.

Bush did not perform Guard duties during the third quarter of 1972 but “fulfilled his obligation to the National Guard in full,” Buchan said. “The documents we released months ago make that clear.”

In February, the White House released some payroll and medical records from Bush’s Vietnam-era service to counter Democrats’ suggestions that he shirked his duty in the Texas Air National Guard.

The Pentagon letter was sent in response to an April lawsuit filed by the AP under the federal Freedom of Information Act. That law requires government agencies to make public information not specifically exempted for disclosure.

The letter said that in 1996 and 1997, the Pentagon “engaged with limited success in a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm.” During the process, “the microfilm payroll records of numerous service members were damaged,” the letter said.

This process resulted in “the inadvertent destruction of microfilm containing certain National Guard payroll records,” including Bush’s, the letter said.

The White House on Feb. 13 released Bush’s military records to counter suggestions he shirked his duty. But there was no new evidence given at that time to show that he was in Alabama during the period when Democrats questioned whether he performed his service obligation.