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Viewer Discretion Advised: George Bush Sr. in World War II.

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  • Viewer Discretion Advised: George Bush Sr. in World War II.

    That guy really been through some stuff.
    Luckily he escaped the Japs.
    Read this:

    George Bush's comrades eaten by their Japanese PoW guards
    By Charles Laurence in New York
    (Filed: 26/10/2003)


    The former President George Bush narrowly escaped being beheaded and eaten by Japanese soldiers when he was shot down over the Pacific in the Second World War, a shocking new history published in America has revealed.

    The book, Flyboys, is the result of historical detective work by James Bradley, whose father was among the marines later photographed raising the flag over the island of Iwo Jima.

    Lt George Bush, then a 20-year-old pilot, was among nine airmen who escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on Chichi Jima, a tiny island 700 miles south of Tokyo, in September 1944 - and was the only one to evade capture by the Japanese.

    The horrific fate of the other eight "flyboys" was established in subsequent war crimes trials on the island of Guam, but details were sealed in top secret files in Washington to spare their families distress.

    Mr Bradley has established that they were tortured, beaten and then executed, either by beheading with swords or by multiple stab-wounds from bayonets and sharpened bamboo stakes. Four were then butchered by the island garrison's surgeons and their livers and meat from their thighs eaten by senior Japanese officers.

    The future president escaped a similar fate because he ditched his plane further from the island than the other crews, and managed to scramble on to a liferaft. American planes launched a hail of fire at Japanese boats which set out to capture him, driving them back, and he was eventually rescued by a US submarine.

    When the black hull of the USS Finback surfaced in front of him, he thought he was hallucinating, he told Mr Bradley in a television film made to coincide with the publication of Flyboys. He had been vomiting, bleeding from a head wound, and weeping with fear. He said only four words to his rescuers: "Happy to be aboard."

    Mr Bush's part in the raid - for which he won the Distinguished Flying Cross - has long been known to Americans. Not known until now was the grim fate of his downed comrades - none from his own plane - who swam ashore.

    Mr Bradley pieced together the horrific truth from secret transcripts of the war crimes trials, given to him by a former officer and lawyer who was an official witness at the time, and the testimony of surviving Japanese veterans.

    A radio operator, Marve Mershon, was marched to a freshly dug grave, blindfolded, and made to kneel for beheading by sword, testified a Japanese soldier, named as Iwakawa, at the war crimes trial. "When the flyer was struck, he did not cry out, but made a slight groan."

    The next day a Japanese officer, Major Sueo Matoba, decided to include American flesh in a sake-fuelled feast he laid on for officers including the commander-in-chief on the island, Gen Yoshio Tachibana. Both men were later tried and executed for war crimes.

    A Japanese medical orderly who helped the surgeon prepare the ingredients said: "Dr Teraki cut open the chest and took out the liver. I removed a piece of flesh from the flyer's thigh, weighing about six pounds and measuring four inches wide, about a foot long."

    Another crewman, Floyd Hall, met a similar fate. Adml Kinizo Mori, the senior naval officer on Chichi Jima, told the court that Major Matoba brought "a delicacy" to a party at his quarters - a specially prepared dish of Floyd Hall's liver.

    According to Adml Mori, Matoba told him: "I had it pierced with bamboo sticks and cooked with soy sauce and vegetables." They ate it in "very small pieces", believing it "good medicine for the stomach", the admiral recalled.

    A third victim of cannibalism, Jimmy Dye, had been put to work as a translator when, several weeks later, Capt Shizuo Yoshii - who was later tried and executed - called for his liver to be served at a party for fellow officers. Parts of a fourth airman, Warren Earl Vaughn, were also eaten and the remaining four were executed, one by being clubbed to death.

    The parents of all the airmen are now dead, but Mr Bradley contacted all their families. "The first reaction was a stunned silence, a hush. But I think that at last knowing how these men died, however horrible their deaths, has allowed closure and in a word I heard from them, healing," he said. Mr Bush's first reaction was also to say nothing. "There was a lot of head-shaking, a lot of silence," the author told The Telegraph. "There was no disgust, shock or horror. He's a veteran of a different generation."

    The former president returned to Chichi Jima with Mr Bradley for the first time since his rescue for the CNN documentary broadcast last week. Mr Bush looked sombre but never visibly upset, and ventured into the water in a modern liferaft to re-create his experience.

    He recalled that while on the submarine he asked himself why he had survived. "Why had I been spared and what did God have in store for me? In my own view there's got to be some kind of destiny and I was being spared for something on Earth." Earlier he had told Mr Bradley: "I think about those guys all the time."


    © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003

    __________________


    No wonder his son dodged Vietnam.

  • #2
    His son didn't dodge Nam. He was in the service, but he wasn't sent
    Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

    Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

    Comment


    • #3
      He served with a Houston based F-111 squadron. He joined it because he knew that it was not going to be sent to Vietnam. It was a National Guard squadron.
      He also went AWOL for 2 months of his service and upon his returning failed a drug test.
      Last edited by s_qwert63; 26 Oct 03,, 18:32.

      Comment


      • #4
        he Flew F-111's?

        check your "facts" before you post squirt he flew F-102's.
        Your look more lost than a bastard child on fathers day.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Stinger
          he Flew F-111's?

          check your "facts" before you post squirt he flew F-102's.
          wow... you got me real good, congratulations, you deserve a cookie.
          the main point is not what damn jet he flew, but the fact that he pussied out while his countrymen were getting killed in Iraq.
          and i misread the source, it said that he was in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, i read the article diagonally and assumed that he was flying F111's. simple as that.

          "After Yale, Bush successfully dodged the draft by volunteering for a six-year hitch in the Texas Air National Guard. This required some serious string-pulling, but the Bushes had lots of friends in high places. Evidently hoping to avoid winding up in Southeast Asia, on his application George checked the box labeled do not volunteer under the heading "overseas assignment."

          Bush was immediately accepted into the Guard, where he got promoted in record time. He was also fast-tracked into the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, which involved skipping over a waiting list full of qualified applicants. And then for four years he did as little work as possible, just the minimum required to remain in the unit, which was based in Houston.

          Then in May 1972, with two years left on his enlistment, George headed off to Alabama and requested reassignment to an inactive postal unit there. This request was a little odd for an Air National Guardsman, seeing that the outfit had no airplanes. Bush's request was denied. But for some reason he decided to stick around Alabama for a few months and didn't return to his Houston post until he was required to receive an annual physical.

          Then, for some reason, Bush was grounded by his commander for "his failure to accomplish annual medical examination." Either he never showed up, or he flunked it. We don't know for certain because his military records are sealed, and can only be made public with the subject's assent. Bush has never chosen to make them available. "

          Comment


          • #6
            The main point is you can't get a simple thing like aircraft type correct how can you expect anything else you say to be treated with anything other than apprehension at best?
            Your look more lost than a bastard child on fathers day.

            Comment


            • #7
              Watch the potty mouth Shamil!

              Originally posted by Stinger
              The main point is you can't get a simple thing like aircraft type correct how can you expect anything else you say to be treated with anything other than apprehension at best?
              ***** ******!
              the aircraft type does not matter ****all.
              do you give a **** about what aircraft he "flew"?

              and the F111 does exist for your information.

              Comment


              • #8
                It matters that you, by your own account quickly read something and didn't take the time to make sure your assumptions were correct. Jesus Christ had nothing to do with it.

                and I never said the F-111 doesn't exist... I've sat in the cockpit of the damned thing
                Your look more lost than a bastard child on fathers day.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Stinger
                  It matters that you, by your own account quickly read something and didn't take the time to make sure your assumptions were correct. Jesus Christ had nothing to do with it.


                  i made my assumptions allright.
                  Dubya skipped NAM. And that is proven.


                  and I never said the F-111 doesn't exist... I've sat in the cockpit of the damned thing
                  congratulations, i am very happy for you!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by s_qwert63
                    i made my assumptions allright.
                    Dubya skipped NAM. And that is proven.
                    [/B]
                    Assumptions are the Bane of a solid argument you would do well to avoid them.
                    Your look more lost than a bastard child on fathers day.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Squirt he said this "he Flew F-111's?

                      check your "facts" before you post squirt he flew F-102's."

                      No where in this statement or any other statement did he say F-111's did not exsist. The F-111 during the Cold War would have been used to deliver Nuclear Weapons. The F-102 is Fighter/Intercepter not a delivery system for Bombs and Nuclear Weapons.

                      There is an extremly large difference between the two Aircraft.

                      i made my assumptions allright.
                      Dubya skipped NAM. And that is proven.
                      Who cares what he has skipped or what he hasn't skipped. It is irrelivant.
                      Last edited by Praxus; 26 Oct 03,, 19:03.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Praxus

                        Who cares what he has skipped or what he hasn't skipped. It is irrelivant.
                        so is what type of aircraft he flew.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          so is what type of aircraft he flew.
                          I never claimed that he didn't skip Vietnam. You emplyed that Stinger said the F111 didn't exsist. He clearly did not say that.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            the main point is not what damn jet he flew, but the fact that he pussied out while his countrymen were getting killed in Iraq.
                            Iraq, you say. I thought it was Nam he supposedly dodged...
                            Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

                            Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              He's not the only one to have "pussied out" of Vietnam. A certain William Jefferson Clinton did the same. Besides, WTF do you care about Bush's military record? The man is making decisions in the here and now with a good team of advisors.
                              I can't say I agree with everything that Bush has done but I'm not going to lambast the man for things in his past that he can't change. I would say all world leaders have skeletons in their closets, including some of this country's most beloved Presidents.
                              Your article has merit from a historical point of view and is quite interesting, if grisly. Why not just leave it at that.
                              “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                              Comment

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