WASHINGTON – The Pentagon released 10 pages of records from President Bush's (search) Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard (search) late Friday, but the files shed no new light on his military career.
The records include several that have been released before and others that are administrative files or cover letters to other documents that have been previously released.
The Defense Department released the records in response to a Freedom of Information Act (search) lawsuit by The Associated Press. Friday was the court-ordered deadline for the Pentagon to turn over all records it could find on Bush's Texas Air National Guard service.
The release marked the second Friday night in a row that the Defense Department has released more of the president's National Guard files. The White House has repeatedly announced this year that all of Bush's records have been released, only to have the Pentagon come up with more files in response to the AP's lawsuit and FOIA requests.
The records do not have information about the most controversial aspects of Bush's service: gaps in attendance for as long as six months in 1972 and 1973 and the future president's decision to skip a required medical examination in 1972 that ended his certification to fly F-102A fighters.
Bush has said he fulfilled all his National Guard requirements. Democratic critics have questioned that, saying the gaps in Bush's records are evidence Bush may have shirked some of his duties in his final years in the Guard.
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