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Former president faces hecklers in Lawrence, Kansas
The Associated Press
LAWRENCE | As his son’s presidency winds down, former President George H.W. Bush faced a few anti-war hecklers Sunday at the University of Kansas.
The nation’s 41st president came to the university to receive the 2008 Leadership Prize from the Dole Institute of Politics.
He touched on a wide range of topics, including the current Iraq war and the previous one he oversaw.
But anti-war hecklers interrupted him three times. When one protester was admonished to be civil, he shouted back, “There’s nothing civil about war or war crimes.”
Security escorted out about a half dozen people from the audience of about 2,000.
Later Bush said, “These guys yell at me, it doesn’t bother me anymore.”
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There is an hour long TV show on the elder Bush's WWII service. They interviewed him in the South Pacific where his plane was shot and in flames. He said he radioed his other crew members to bail out, but could not see them and got no verbal answer that they had received the order. He bailed out and survived and they perished. The interviewer asked him if there was a day that goes by that he doesn't think of his crew members that died. His answer. No, I never think about it.
Not a bit strange that the pilot's the only one to get out? I don't suppose he was being selfish tho'. The lives of two co-riding peons would've been but a trifle when considering the risk of denying America and her plaintive need for his future talents in leadership...
His parachute opened so early, he hit the tail plane... Sounds like one of the crew managed to get a last, desperate hand-grab on his pack as he blew by them..
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"...Chester Mierzejewski, an old war buddy of Bush, who said he was angered by the "false assertions" made by candidate Bush when describing the incident, gave a different account.
After 44 years of silence, Mierzejewski, who also was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, told the New York Post that Bush had abandoned his crew to death when there was another choice.
He said he was approximately 100 feet in front of Bush's plane as the turret gunner for Squadron Commander Douglas Melvin's plane, "so close he could see in the cockpit" of Bush's bomber. Mierzejewski's close wartime buddy was one of the two crew members in Bush's plane.
According to Mierzejewski, the squadron was in a tight-formation bombing raid against a Japanese radio installation on an island reported to be heavily fortified. He saw "a puff of smoke" come from Bush's plane which quickly disappeared and was certain only one man parachuted from the plane and that it was Bush, the pilot.
Mierzejewski said the Avenger torpedo bomber was engineered so that it could successfully crash land on water and that Bush doomed his own crew by bailing out and leaving the bomber out of control.
Other World War II veterans also expressed concern about Bush parachuting out of the aircraft. "He had a moral obligation to put that plane in the water in an emergency landing," Robert Flood, a former B-17 bombardier told the press. "He violated the primary rule for a captain of a multi-crew aircraft: The pilot never leaves the airplane with anybody in it."
Pete Brandon, a Marine Corps Avenger pilot, who also served in the South Pacific, said an Avenger pilot had two choices: Set the plane down in the water or hold it steady until the two crewmen could prepare to jump.
"In an Avenger, only the pilot wore a parachute," Brandon said. "The two crewmen wore harnesses. If the order came to bail out, they had to take chest parachutes from a shelf and strap them on - and bail out. The Avenger was very unstable. The pilot had to be at the controls the whole time or it would go right over on its back."
Not a bit strange that the pilot's the only one to get out? I don't suppose he was being selfish tho'. The lives of two co-riding peons would've been but a trifle when considering the risk of denying America and her plaintive need for his future talents in leadership...
His parachute opened so early, he hit the tail plane... Sounds like one of the crew managed to get a last, desperate hand-grab on his pack as he blew by them..
~~~===~~~===~~~===~~~===~~~===~~~===~~~===~~~===~~~===~~~===~~~
"...Chester Mierzejewski, an old war buddy of Bush, who said he was angered by the "false assertions" made by candidate Bush when describing the incident, gave a different account.
After 44 years of silence, Mierzejewski, who also was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, told the New York Post that Bush had abandoned his crew to death when there was another choice.
He said he was approximately 100 feet in front of Bush's plane as the turret gunner for Squadron Commander Douglas Melvin's plane, "so close he could see in the cockpit" of Bush's bomber. Mierzejewski's close wartime buddy was one of the two crew members in Bush's plane.
According to Mierzejewski, the squadron was in a tight-formation bombing raid against a Japanese radio installation on an island reported to be heavily fortified. He saw "a puff of smoke" come from Bush's plane which quickly disappeared and was certain only one man parachuted from the plane and that it was Bush, the pilot.
Mierzejewski said the Avenger torpedo bomber was engineered so that it could successfully crash land on water and that Bush doomed his own crew by bailing out and leaving the bomber out of control.
Other World War II veterans also expressed concern about Bush parachuting out of the aircraft. "He had a moral obligation to put that plane in the water in an emergency landing," Robert Flood, a former B-17 bombardier told the press. "He violated the primary rule for a captain of a multi-crew aircraft: The pilot never leaves the airplane with anybody in it."
Pete Brandon, a Marine Corps Avenger pilot, who also served in the South Pacific, said an Avenger pilot had two choices: Set the plane down in the water or hold it steady until the two crewmen could prepare to jump.
"In an Avenger, only the pilot wore a parachute," Brandon said. "The two crewmen wore harnesses. If the order came to bail out, they had to take chest parachutes from a shelf and strap them on - and bail out. The Avenger was very unstable. The pilot had to be at the controls the whole time or it would go right over on its back."