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George Bush, 41st President, Dies at 94

by IAS••44

 George Herbert Walker Bush, the president who managed the end of the Cold War and forged a global coalition to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait, has died at age 94.  In a political career that spanned three decades, he lost his bid for re-election and lived to see his son win the Oval Office.

The death of Bush — nicknamed “41” to distinguish himself from son George W. Bush, “43” — was announced in a statement released late Friday.

“Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died,” his son, former President George W. Bush, said in a statement released by family spokesman Jim McGrath. “George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens.”

His death, which was announced by his office, came less than eight months after that of his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush.

Mr. Bush had a form of Parkinson’s disease that forced him to use a wheelchair or motorized scooter in recent years, and he had been in and out of hospitals during that time as his health declined. In April, a day after attending Mrs. Bush’s funeral, he was treated for an infection that had spread to his blood. In 2013, he was in dire enough shape with bronchitis that former President George W. Bush, his son, solicited ideas for a eulogy.

But he proved resilient each time. In 2013 he told well-wishers, through an aide, to “put the harps back in the closet.”

 

On the day he turned 18 years old, Bush both graduated from Phillips Academy Andover and enlisted in the Navy, little more than six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Less than a year later, when he was still 18, he received his wings and officer’s commission, believed to be the Navy’s youngest pilot.

For the next two years, with World War II at its peak, Bush flew torpedo bombers off the USS San Jacinto. On Sept. 2, 1944, his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire while he was on a bombing run in the Pacific. Bush bailed and was rescued by a submarine, but his two crewmembers were killed. Bush would later say he thought of them every day.

 

Source: George Bush, 41st President, Dies at 94 

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44 thoughts on “George Bush, 41st President, Dies at 94”

  1. President George H. W. Bush was also the first baseman and captain of the Yale baseball team in 1947 and 1948:

    “George H.W. Bush Loved Baseball and Had The Leather To Prove It:

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2018/12/01/george-hw-bush-love-baseball-dating-back-days-yale/2171698002/

    Rest In Peace, Sir. Salute.

    You are now with Barbara and your Daughter, Robin:

    “Touching Cartoon Reunites George H.W. Bush With Wife Barbara and Daughter Robin:

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/01/george-h-w-bush-reunited-barbara-and-robin-touching-cartoon/2172695002/

    For this post only and in honor of our 41st President: Go Navy.

  3. Fair winds and following seas, Mr President. Thank you for being a part of the Greatest Generation, and for your leadership throughout Desert Storm

  9. Details of LTJG George H. W. Bush and his crew being shot down on a bombing run against a Japanese radio station on the island of ChiChi Jima while flying a TBM Avenger from Torpedo Squadron Fifty-One (VT-51) operating from USS SAN JACINTO (CVL-30), and his subsequent rescue by the submarine USS FINBACK (SS-230), are found at the Naval History and Heritage Command link below:

    ‘Vice President Bush Calls World War II Experience “Sobering”‘

    https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/biographies-list/bios-b/bush-george-h-w/ltjg-george-bush-in-world-war-ii.html

    ‘[…]

    It was September 2, 1944. Lieutenant Junior Grade George Bush was a pilot with Torpedo Squadron Fifty-One (VT-51 ) aboard the aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto (CVL-30), a light carrier which was deployed in the North Pacific.

    Just two years earlier, on June 12, 1942, Bush had graduated from high school and joined the Navy as a seaman, second class. But, in less than a year, he completed flight training at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, was commissioned an ensign, and went on to fly TBM Avengers with VT-51. For a time, he was the youngest pilot in Naval Aviation.

    On that sunny morning of September, Bush woke aboard San Jacinto prepared to fly one of the 58 attack missions he would fly during the war. However, this particular mission would end a little differently than his other 57.

    The target was a Japanese radio station on ChiChi Jima, located about 600 miles southwest of Japan in the Bonin Islands. For a time, the enemy on that tiny island had been intercepting U.S. military radio transmissions and warning Japan and occupied enemy islands of impending American air strikes. It had to be destroyed.

    Before 0900, Bush and two aircrewmen (his regular radioman, Radioman Second Class John Delaney, and substitute gunner Lieutenant Junior Grade William White) strapped themselves inside an Avenger and catapulted off San Jacinto. Three other bomb-laden VT-51 aircraft, as well as a number of VF-51’s F6F Hellcats, joined the mission.

    “I was replaced by Ltjg. White at the last minute,” said Leo W. Nadeau, then an ordnanceman second class who flew as Bush’s gunner on all but two of his attack missions. “As intelligence officer, White wanted to go along to observe the island.”

    Nadeau, who was 20 at the time, added that the day before, Bush, Delaney and he had flown into ChiChi Jima and destroyed an enemy gun emplacement.

    “The antiaircraft (AA) fire on that island was the worst we had seen,” he said. “I don’t think the AA fire in the Philippines was as bad as that.”

    “ChiChi was a real feisty place to fly into,” Stanley Butchart, a former VT-51 pilot and friend of Bush, agreed. “As I remember, it had gun emplacements hidden in the mountain areas. In order to get down to the radio facility, you had to fly past the AA batteries, which was risky business.”

    As expected, projectiles belched from the enemy’s AA batteries as soon as Bush and his squadron mates were over the island. Tiny black puffs of smoke thickened around his plane as he approached the target and dove steeply — so steeply that Bush felt like he was standing on his head. But before he reached the radio facility the plane was hit.

    Ltjg. Bush, who felt the plane “lift” from the hit, continued his dive toward the target and dropped his payload. The four 500-pound bombs exploded, causing damaging hits. For his courage and disregard for his own safety in pressing home his attack, he was later awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross.

    Bush maneuvered the Avenger over the ocean with the hope it would make the journey back to San Jacinto. But the plane began to blaze and clouds of smoke soon enveloped the cockpit. Choking and gasping for air, Bush and one of his aircrewmen wriggled out of the plane and leaped from about 1,500 feet. His other crewman, dead or seriously injured from the blast, went down with the Avenger.

    Bush parachuted safely into the water, dangerously close to the shore. Unfortunately, the aircrewman fell helplessly to his death because his parachute failed to open properly.

    No one ever knew which one bailed out with Mr. Bush,” said Nadeau, now a building contractor in Ramona, Calif. “I would assume it was Delaney, because as the radioman, he would go out first to leave room for the gunner to climb down out of the turret and put his chute on.

    “There wasn’t room in the turret for the gunner to wear a parachute. As a gunner, my parachute hung on the bulkhead of the plane near Delaney. We set up an escape procedure where he was supposed to hand me my chute and jump, and then I was to follow him. The procedure took a couple of seconds.”

    Nadeau added that he “didn’t know what to think” when he heard the plan was shot down.

    “I felt bad that Delaney and Mr. White had died,” he said. “I just had the feeling that had I been there, Delaney and I might have both made it out alive — that is, unless one of us got hit by AA. Delaney and I had practiced our escape procedure constantly. He might have stayed to help White get out of the turret and delayed too long. it’s one of those things that never leaves your mind. Why didn’t I go that day?”

    Vice-President Bush said that he chose to finish the bombing run rather than bail out early because as a Naval Aviator, he was disciplined to do that.

    “We were trained to complete our runs no matter what the obstacle,”he remarked.

    […]

    Circling fighter planes transmitted Bush’s plight and position to the U.S. submarine Finback (SS-230), patrolling 15 to 20 miles from the island
    “This was 1944 and there were very few enemy targets left,” said retired Capt. Robert R.Williams Jr., 73, who was Finback’s commanding officer then. “So, the main reason for our being on patrol was to act as lifeguard and pick up aviators.”

    According to Lieutenant Commander Dean Spratlin, Finback’s executive officer at the time, the submarine had an area of 200 to 300 square miles to cover, which included Iwo Jima, ChiChi Jima and HaHa Jima in the Bonin Islands.

    A few hours after transmitting Bush’s position, Williams, then a commander, sighted him on the periscope about seven miles away from ChiChi. He ordered the submarine to the surface.

    “I saw this thing coming out of the water and I said to myself, ‘Jeez, I hope it’s one of ours,'” Bush remarked.

    Spratlin, who is now in the real estate business in Atlanta, Ga., said he and Williams weren’t worried about surfacing in daylight so close to an enemy island because they had several U.S. fighters flying cover.
    “We had a big sub (312 feet long), so we rigged out the bowplanes which gave us a platform where we could step down and pull him aboard,” added Spratlin.

    While several of Finback’s crewmen were helping Bush aboard, Ensign Bill Edwards, the sub’s first lieutenant and photographic officer, filmed the rescue. The 8mm film later was sent to Bush while he was a congressman from Texas and was shown recently as part of a biographical sketch during the Republican National Convention.

    Bush was taken inside Finback and the sub submerged.

    “Once he was pulled aboard, he as taken to the wardroom,” said Thomas R. Keene, a TBF Avenger pilot from USS Franklin, who was shot down the day before off Iwo Jima along with his two enlisted aircrewmen. “It must have seemed like a dream to him. One minute he was all alone on the ocean, and the next he was on board a submarine being served food in a red-lighted compartment that had music playing on a record player.”

    […]

    Bush, who is credited with 126 carrier landings and 1,228 flight hours, remarked that he’s done only a ”little bit of civilian flying” since leaving the Navy.

    Nowadays. the former Naval Aviator said he is happy to have the pilots of Air Force Two fly him around the world as he fulfills his obligations as Vice President.

    “They are A-1 pilots,” Bush said. “But their wings aren’t gold.”‘

    Rest easy, Mr. President.

    1. What’s not in that account is that of the nine men whose planes went down over or near that island, only the future president survived. Those who were captured were tortured and murdered. The commanding general was hanged after the war.

      1. It has also been reported that some of the US aircrew who were captured at ChiChi Jima and subsequently tortured/murdered by the Japanese were also eaten by senior Japanese officers.

        ‘Japanese Soldiers Cannibalised US Airmen On Chichi Jima, WWII’

        https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/japanese-soldiers-cannibalised-us-airme.html

        “[…]

        Because of its strategic importance as a radio communications base, Chichi Jima was heavily fortified, and a seaborne invasion would have been costly for the Allies. Consequently, the island was subjected to many aerial attacks by US aircraft in 1944/45.

        More than one hundred US airmen were shot down, either over the island itself or over the sea surrounding it. Most of the men died in their aircraft or were killed by Japanese troops, but a few escaped instant death, and some of those were captured.

        Only three men were rescued by US submarines, and of those was George H. W. Bush, who eventually became President of the United States.

        The captured men were subjected to varying degrees of torture before being killed with bamboo spears or Japanese military swords, but evidence came to light of some far more barbaric practices.

        At least four of the captured men were beheaded, and their livers and thigh muscles were later served up at banquets attended by senior Japanese officers. A witness at a later War crimes trial, held on the island of Guam, stated that he saw one American beheaded as he was forced to kneel by an open grave. The following day human flesh, including a liver, was served to Japanese officers for dinner.

        There was evidence of at least three other similar events, all of them involving cannibalism, and Rear Admiral Kunizo Mori and Army Major General Yoshio Tachibana were both sentenced to death by hanging for their part in ordering the deaths and subsequent consumption of the American airmen.

        At the time, the appalling crimes were considered too distressing to report to the families of the dead men, and the files were classified as secret.

        In 2003, a book by James Bradley called ‘Flyboys’ was published, and it included details of the events on Chichi Jima.

        At the time, Bradley said that although the parents of the airmen involved had all died, he had notified remaining family members of the details.”

        1. James Bradley, author of “Flags of Our Fathers,” wrote a pretty good book on that. As if that weren’t bad enough, it seems that the motive for the cannibalism was at least partly to fuck with one of their own radiomen who was a neisei and had been stranded in Japan at the start of the war and conscripted because he spoke English. Sad, sad story, and horrifying that not only could such a despicable act be committed, but also that it could be done for completely petty reasons. Cannibalism was disturbingly common in the Japanese military, who held that non-Japanese were subhuman.

          1. The Flyboys by James Bradley. I highly recommend it.

            President Bush was a Great American. I admire him greatly.

        2. Sorry, Mick. Completely missed your reference to Bradley’s book. Too early in the morning, Pacific time, plus a couple of busy nights.

  10. Throughout 1944, President George H. W. Bush had flown 58 combat missions for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), three Air Medals with two Gold Stars and the Presidential Unit Citation awarded San Jacinto (CVL-30):

    https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/biographies-list/bios-b/bush-george-h-w.html

    Here is his Citation for the DFC:

    https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/biographies-list/bios-b/bush-george-h-w/bush-citation.html

  11. Without doubt, the most honorable President for whom I served. It was an honor and a privilege to be under his command.

    You more than earned your peace, Mr. President. Prayers for your family during this time. And for all of us who mourn your passing.

    1. Very well put, OWB.

      I got to hear him talk at Camp Pendleton in the mid 90’s. He was a very modest man and told all of us (Officers and SNCO of the 1st MARDIV) about his decisions during Desert Shield/Desert Storm and how his experience in WWII and his faith helped him. I walked away that day respecting him even more.

          1. 2/17th Air Cav:

            😅😂🤣😆

            Current temperature in Hell, Michigan is 35 Degrees, so it is getting there (freezing).

            https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/mi/hell

            And a bit of background on Hell, Michigan:

            “Hell, Michigan is an unincorporated community in Putnam Township, Livingston County, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The community is near the border with Washtenaw County, about 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Ann Arbor. Hell is three miles (4.8 km) southwest of Pinckney via Patterson Lake Road. The community is served by the Pinckney post office with ZIP Code 48169.”

            Who knew? 😉

            goarmybeatnavy😎

          2. God Speed and Fare Well Mr. President; Peace be unto your Family. Thank you for your service to our country.

            I was gifted a 1st Edition copy of Mr. Bradley’s book last weekend. I’am about a 1/3rd way thru it. So far a very good eye opening read. The book was originally gifted to a gentleman that was high up in the RNC and whose father had supposedly served with Lt Bush.

            2/17 Air Cav…you owe me a new screen for my chrome book. (grin!)

            To follow the example of Another Pat, and to pay honors to LT GHW Bush….GO NAVAL AVIATION!

    2. I am tired of all the ass kissing and patting this sucker on the back! People have short memories..like when 41 was talking about his 1000 points of light and the new world order! and how he said “if people knew what we had done, they would be in the streets with torches and pitchforks! then there was always the pictures of him patting womens asses while his wife was right there….no thank you..he was an a.h. imho!

  14. A life well-lived, indeed.

    Served in World War II as a Naval Aviator
    Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale (1948)
    Literally became a millionaire in the oil business (1948-1966)
    Member, US House of Representatives (1967-1971)
    US Ambassador to the UN (1971-1973)
    Chairman, RNC (1973-1974) – during his tenure, he formally requested that Nixon resign
    US Envoy to the PRC (1974-1976)
    Director of Central Intelligence (1976-1977)
    Vice President of the United States (1981-1989)
    President of the United States (1989-1993 – and screw you, H. Ross Perot)

    He also lived long enough (age 94) to see two of his sons serve as state Governors, and one serve as POTUS.

    Rest in peace, Sir.

  16. The last combat WWII President. As stated above, he enlisted right out of high school. Carter was an undergrad in Georgia who had always wanted to go to Annapolis, so mid-war he started there and was commissioned in 1946 after the war. No further comment.

  17. RIP.

    It will be interesting to see the media heaping praise on him now that he’s gone, instead of the scorn and ridicule when he was in office, “War for oil”, “so out of touch that he didn’t know about grocery store barcodes” (a lie). As with Goldwater, the media loves dead Republicans.

    2. Don’t worry, the lefties are already attacking him; the fine folks at Salon.com and the DU are hard at it. Out of respect for the man I’ll not sully this post with links.

      1. I read about the Twitter blue checkmark mafia besmirching the memory of a good man as well. They are truly terrible people.

        PSA – Do not go looking for any of these stories. It’ll make you lose what little faith you have left in the decency of humanity.

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