Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Presiding Officer knows I spent a little time in the Navy. So did my father. My father enlisted in the Navy right before World War II broke out. He was not 18. George Herbert Walker Bush, I think on his 18th birthday, just out of high school, enlisted in the Navy as a seaman second class. About a year later, he was off to Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, where I earned my wings as a naval flight officer a long time ago. He became an ensign, I think at the age of 19, and became, maybe, the youngest Navy pilot around that time that they had in the Navy, if you can believe that. A year or so later, I think in September of 1943, he was on the USS San Jacinto in the Pacific and flew avenger bombers with the 3rd Fleet and 6th Fleet. When you think about it, at that point in time he must have been about 20 years old, flying avenger bombers. That is pretty amazing. When I was 20 years, I was a sophomore or junior at Ohio State. The idea of flying missions, as we did stuff in the summers with Navy ROTC in Corpus Christi, flying airplanes and so forth--to be flying missions in the Pacific theater in the middle of World War II is pretty astounding. In 1944, he would have been maybe 20 years old, not quite 21. He was a lieutenant JG. I think I made lieutenant JG when I was 22 or so.…”