(quoted from post at 10:50:48 09/02/17)
(quoted from post at 06:03:06 09/02/17) Partly true. The airplane was NOT on fire. Bush did bail out. The other THREE crewmen were all killed and did NOT bail out. Bush claimed he was on fire but several eyewitnesses said there was no fire and no immediate peril to cause Bush to bail out and leave his crew behind.
Sorry gordo, that doesn't wash, the Avenger Torpedo bomber had a 3 man crew, not 4 so he couldn't have abandoned THREE other crewmen. The Avenger's crew were pilot, turret gunner and radioman/bombardier/ventral gunner. So if the several "eyewitnesses', allegedly other pilots/crewmen flying the same mission can't even get the number of crewmen on the plane right I can't trust the rest of their story either. Just who are these eye witnesses? Did they appear before he became Reagans running mate of after?
Next question is to how many missions he flew with some claiming 48 and others 52. Who cares. The man flew combat missions against and armed and aggressive enemy. Now, why would he lie about why he bailed out? One account says he bailed out and the crew died in the crash, another that he bailed out after the crew and that they were captured and excuted. Another claimed it was impossible for an Avenger to burn which other research proves to be a lie. Another version of the story is that both other crewmen made it out, were captured, executed and at least partially eaten by the senior offices.
Now Bush the man? I thought he handled the invasion of Kuwait very well but overall didn't much care for his term in office. But I'm not going to knock someone who did in fact go in harms way for out country unless you can prove to me that they were cowards or traitors. Kinda funny but the same kinda controversy is rising up about the PT 109 incident. Kennedy claimed it was too dark to see the destroyer yet crewmen from the destroyer claimed to have seen the 109 and in fact to have deliberately run it down. At least Kennedy and Bush were willing to serve unlike a former president who did his level best to avoid military service and in IMO only escaped being prosecuted for being a draft dodger because of his influential friends.
Get over it man, Bush won't run again.
Rick
