Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

A gentleman named Bill sent me a link to this article. It seems to be a very balanced account of Dubya’s service in the ANG. It includes quite a few quotes, both good and not-so-good, about a brash young man who flew fighters.

According to several former officers, the openings in the unit were filled from a waiting list kept in the base safe of Rufus G. Martin, then an Air National Guard personnel officer.

In a recent interview, Mr. Martin of San Antonio said the list was kept on computer and in a bound volume, which was periodically inspected by outside agencies to make sure the list was kept properly.

Mr. Bush said he sought the Guard position on his own, before graduating from Yale University in 1968. He personally met with Col. Walter B. Staudt, commander of the 147th group.

In an interview, Mr. Bush said he walked into Col. Staudt’s Houston office and told him he wanted to be a fighter pilot.

“He told me they were looking for pilots,” Mr. Bush said. He said he was told that there were five or six flying slots available, and he got one of them.

While Guard slots generally were coveted, pilot positions required superior education, physical fitness and the willingness to spend more than a year in full-time training.

“If somebody like that came along, you’d snatch them up,” said the former commander, who retired as a general. “He took no advantage. It wouldn’t have made any difference whether his daddy was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

Bobby Hodges, the group’s operations officer, and others familiar with Guard rules said Mr. Bush made it to the top of the short list of candidates who could pass both the written officer test and a rigorous flight physical to qualify for the three to four annual pilot training “quotas” allotted to the unit.

Mr. Hodges and Gen. Staudt are the two surviving members of the military panel that reviewed and approved Mr. Bush’s officer commission.

Most of those wanting to get into the Guard at that time, they said, didn’t want to put in the full year of active service that was required to become a pilot.

Since we know Mary Mapes has been researching this story for five years, I think it’s time for CBS to tell us who has been dedicated to scrutinizing John Kerry’s background.