WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- The destruction of microfilm has derailed Pentagon efforts to find records of President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard in 1972.
Records released on CD-ROM this week duplicate papers the White House handed out in February regarding the president's Vietnam War-era service from 1968 to 1973, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The records do not provide evidence that Bush performed military service in Alabama, where he had been transferred in May 1972.
"I am not able to provide complete copies of President Bush's payroll records for his National Guard service," Pentagon Freedom of Information Officer C. Talbott said. He said this was because of "the inadvertent destruction of microfilm containing certain National Guard payroll records," seven years ago.
The records for "numerous service members" were damaged in 1996 and 1997 while officials tried to salvage deteriorating microfilm payroll records. The payroll summaries destroyed were for the first quarter of 1969 and the third quarter of 1972.
