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Additionally, Lieutenant Bush would not have been
authorized to wear the ribbon temporarily, the Air
Force Personnel Center said in an email.
"There isn't a 'temporary' wear of AF Outstanding
Unit Awards for AF personnel," the Air Force Personnel
Center stated.
"I've never heard of temporary wear," added Assistant
Reagan Defense Secretary for Manpower, Reserve Affairs,
Installations and Logistics Lawrence J. Korb, whose
job included overseeing the Air Force Reserves from
1981-1985, in a telephone interview Wednesday. "The
unit didn't get this until 1975."
The Air Force Public Affairs office tried to answer
an inquiry, but went silent and said they just didn't
have enough information to answer after they heard
the query was on President Bush. They deferred comment
to the White House, and supplied the White House comment
phone line.
RAW STORY reached the White House Press Office through
the main switchboard, and a spokeswoman said they
would look into it and return the call as soon as
possible.
"We're very short staffed this week," she said, referring
to the Republican National Convention. The London-based
newspaper The
Telegraph sought comment on the issue Sunday
but received no response.
The Air Force Historical Research Service Organization
confirmed that the 147th Fighter Intercept Group and
the 111th Fighter Intercept Squadron received an Air
Force Outstanding Unit Award for the time period of
1965-1966, two years before Bush joined the service.
 The
Air Force also said both units received the Outstanding
Unit Award in 1975. Bush was discharged from his Texas
Guard unit on Oct. 1, 1973.
Between these dates, the Air Force said Wednesday,
there are "no additional awards."
More importantly, however, the above photograph had
to have been taken some time between his qualifying
as a pilot--since he is wearing his pilots' wings--on
November 26, 1969 and his promotion to First Lieutenant
on November 7, 1970, since he is listed as a Second
Lieutenant (see photograph below). Bush earned his
pilots' wings on Nov. 29, 1969, according to his White
House military biography.
His biography
does not list that he was awarded the Air Force Oustanding
Unit Award.
Walt Starr, who did the original research, speculates
that Bush was wearing the ribbon because many members
of his unit (who had been in the unit since 1966)
would have been wearing the ribbon, and he probably
thought he was supposed to be wearing it.
American media, having focused for more than three
weeks on Swift Boat veterans' attacks on Sen. John
Kerry's Vietnam service, has yet to report the story.
It has, however, appeared in the The
Telegraph, which carried a brief piece
on the charges Aug. 29. Starr first reported the story
in the popular liberal forum, Democratic
Underground, on Aug. 23.
Punishment for wearing an award one hasn't earned
is punishable by bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture
of all pay and allowances, and/or confinement for
6 months under the Uniform
Code of Military Justice.
DEVELOPING.... Keep your eye on the main Raw
Story page for updates. 
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