George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

Republican, was brought into Roosevelt's war cabinet in 1940 in token of bipartisan
intentions.
But in 1942, Bush was not buying Stimson's advice. It is doubtless significant that in the
mind of young George Bush, World War Two meant exclusively the war in the Pacific,
against the Japanese. In the Bush-approved accounts of this period of his life, there is
scarcely a mention of the European theatre, despite the fact that Roosevelt and the entire
Anglo-American establishment had accorded strategic priority to the "Germany first"
scenario. Young George, it would appear, had his heart set on becoming a navy flier.
Normally the Navy required two years of college from volunteers wishing to become
naval aviators. But, for reasons which have never been satisfactorily explained, young
George was exempted from this requirement. Had father Prescott's crony Artemus Gates,
the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air, been instrumental in making the exception,
which was the key to allowing George to become the youngest of all navy pilots?
On June 12, 1942, his eighteenth birthday, Bush joined the navy in Boston as a seaman
second class. [fn 1] He was ordered to report for active duty as an aviation cadet on
August 6, 1942. After a last date with Barbara, George was taken to Penn Station in New
York City by father Prescott to board a troop train headed for Chapel Hill, North
Carolina. At Chapel Hill Naval Air Station, one of Bush's fellow cadets was the wellknown
Boston Red Sox hitter Ted Williams, who would later join Bush on the campaign
trail in his desperate fight in the New Hampshire primary in February, 1988.
After preflight training at Chapel Hill, Bush moved on to Wold-Chamberlain Naval
Airfield in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he flew solo for the first time in November,
1942. In February, 1943 Bush moved on to Corpus Christi, Texas, for further training.
Bush received his commission as an ensign at Corpus Christi on June 9, 1943.
After this Bush moved through a number of naval air bases over a period of almost a year
for various types of advanced training. In mid-June 1943 he was learning to fly the
Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo-bomber at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In August he made
landings on the USS Sable, a paddle wheel ship that was used as an aircraft carrier for
training purposes. During the summer of 1943 Bush spent a couple of weeks of leave
with Barbara at Walker's Point in Kennebunkport; their engagement was announced in
the New York Times of December 12, 1943.
Later in the summer of 1943 Bush moved on to the Naval Air Base at Norfolk, Virginia.
In September, 1943 Bush's new squadron, called VT-51, moved on to the Naval Air
Station at Chincoteague, Virginia, located on the Delmarva peninsula. On December 14,
1943 Bush and his squadron were brought to Philadelphia to attend the commissioning of
the USS San Jacinto (CVL30), a light attack carrier built on a cruiser hull. Since the name
of the ship recalled Sam Houston's defeat of the Mexican leader Santa Anna in 1836, and
since the ship flew a Lone Star flag, Bushman propaganda has made much of these
artefacts in an attempt to buttress "carpetbag" Bush's tenuous connections to the state of
Texas. Bush's VF-51 squadron reported on board this ship for a shakedown cruise on