LT. COLONEL JOHN 'BILL' CALHOUN
Lt. George W. Bush's Alabama Air National Guard Supervisor

REMEMBERING GEORGE W. BUSH . . .
I remember Lt. Bush in Alabama making his drills with our unit. He was told to sign in and sign out in my office. Lt/Col Turnipseed brought him to my office and introduced us. He told him to report there each drill. Lt. Bush was very professional. His flight suit was neat and he was always very "military" (in bearing). He would stay in my office most of the time, but after I introduced him to Lt. Col. Cyr, he would sometimes go down the hall to his office. Our offices were located in the upstairs/-back of the hanger. The squadron operations (office) where most of the pilots worked, was in another building. I do not remember Lt. Bush ever going to operations.

We would go to the snack bar on base and eat lunch occasionally. I took him to the clinic because he said his flight physical was due. I introduced him to our flight surgeon, Dr. Jim Anderson. Dr. Anderson remembers giving him a flight physical.

Drill weekends were usually on the second weekend of the month but since we were a flying unit, we were usually open three weekends a month. I turned in the sign-in sheet after each drill and administration (an office) was responsible for forwarding Lt. Bush's records to his home station. We were not required to write an effectiveness report since he was never assigned to our unit.

I have had no contact with President Bush, the RNC, or the Bush campaign other than one call to find someone to tell my story to, and they said someone would call me. I received a call from Mike Allen of the Washington Post and I gave him an interview on February 12th (2004) while at the Daytona 500.

Since Lt. Bush was in Alabama to work in Winton Blount's senate campaign, I asked him if he was going to get into politics. He replied, "I don't know, probably". I am sure Lt Bush met several people on the base but I do not remember who they were. Sgt Copeland has come forward and remembers me bringing Lt. Bush to his office concerning his records. This story was started because General Turnipseed made a statement that he did not remember Lt. Bush coming to our unit. He (Turnipseed) has admitted that he suffers from Alzheimer's and is not sure of anything. He has stated that he remembers me and stated that I was a truthful person and if I said Bush was there, then it is probably true.

My former wife remembers me coming home and talking about Lt Bush making his drills with our unit. For those that said they never saw him there (Mintz and Bishop) I would say there was no reason for you to see him, and if you did you would not have known who he was. I am sure there were hundreds of others on the base that never saw him or didn't know who he was, if they did.

I know that the records were turned in to Headquarters after each drill and the sketchy records that are available today do not prove that Bush was not in Alabama during that time. Fortunately, I do not have Alzheimer's and my memory is still pretty good.

-Lt. Col. John Calhoun