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Bush's Early DischargeThey also serve who attend B-school.

By Timothy Noah
Updated Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003, at 6:50 PM ET

Certain documents available on the Web are so piquant that commentary seems superfluous. In honor of Veterans Day, Chatterbox serves up an objet trouvé concerning President George W. Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard. The found object is young Dubya's request—four months after his superiors reported they'd seen hide nor hair of him during the previous year—that he be discharged early so he can attend Harvard Business School. Enjoy. (You may need to click on the lower right-hand corner of the document to enlarge it to readable form.)

If you need a refresher course on President Bush's elusive career in the Air National Guard (first reported in May 2000 by the Boston Globe's Walter V. Robinson), David Corn of The Nation provides one here. A complete set of documents concerning the president's military record, obtained via the Freedom of Information Act by Martin Heldt, can be found here. For a chaser, you might sample the Veterans Day speech President Bush gave today, in which he said, "Every veteran understands the meaning of personal accountability and loyalty and shared sacrifice."

Found Object Archive:
May 3, 2001: Cheney's Priors
April 11, 2001: Chinese Press Explains EP-3 Crew Release
March 5, 2001: The Klan Explains It All For You (objet no longer online)
Feb. 26, 2001: Denise Rich Music Appreciation (objet no longer online)
Jan 20, 2001: John Ashcroft, Gospel Singer
Sept. 8, 2000: J. Edgar Hoover's High School Yearbook

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
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