Originally posted by Buck:
Val, this will be extremely embarrassing for you, and I will deserve an apology, but the document that you posted has nothing to do with Kerry's discharge from the service. The document is for Kerry's graduation from the US Naval Officer Candidate School dated 15 December 1966. Approximately six years later, on 17 February 1972, would be Kerry's Nominal Date of Expiration of Assignment. That is when it was anticipated he would get his honorable discharge from the Navy but of course, we know he was let out early with a less than honorable discharge.
Now for the bad news. Kerry's discharge document is on his site and it shows 1978. Plus it shows a reference to some regs as for the reason it was so late. So now I am going to have to do some more research and find out why his discharge was changed to honorable under President Carter's amnesty program for Vietnam era undesirables.

...John Kerry got our early, got at best a general discharge but it may have been dishonorable, ....and had to beg for an honorable discharge from President Carter under his amnesty program.

Boston Globe: The reexamination of Bush's records by the Globe, along with interviews with military specialists who have reviewed regulations from that era, show that Bush's attendance at required training drills was so irregular that his superiors could have disciplined him or ordered him to active duty in 1972, 1973, or 1974. But they did neither.

The Globe contacted retired Lieutenant Colonel Albert C. Lloyd Jr., the former Texas Air National Guard personnel chief who in February said the records showed Bush had fulfilled his minimum obligations. This time Lloyd agreed that Bush should have joined a reserve unit in the Boston area when he moved to Cambridge in September 1973.

Lloyd: (Bush) took a chance that he could be called up for active duty. But the war was winding down, and he probably knew that the Air Force was not enforcing the penalty. . . . (What a freaking hero this Dubya is! He took a chance to serve in combat knowing the war was over!!! ) There were hundreds of guys like him who did the same thing.

Actually, the Vietnam war was officially over by the time Bush went to Harvard. The US and North Vietnam signed a cease-fire agreement in January of 1973, and the last US combat troops came home in March (leaving only advisers and Marines protecting US installations). The last person drafted into the Army entered service June 30, 1973.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan disputed the Globe conclusion:

McClellan: If the President had not fulfilled his commitment he would not have been honorably discharged. (Even if his daddy was G. H. W. Bush, who are you kidding Mr. McClellan? ) He was honorably discharged in October of '73. The President is proud of his service in the National Guard. . . . The President met his commitments in Texas. He met his commitments in Alabama. He met his commitments when he returned to Texas in 1973.

Q: Did he meet his commitments in Boston?

McClellan: As I said, Caren, if he had not fulfilled his commitments, he would not have been honorably discharged.