One of Bush's most prestigious awards is the Distinguish Flying Cross. He received it when him and three others were flying TBM Avengers from VT-51 over the Bonin Islands and they came into contact with anti-aircraft systems. His plane was hit and the engine burst into flames. He continued to drop all of his bombs on his targets before needing to parachute out over the ocean. One mans parachute did not open and the other two men died. Bush sat defenseless in an inflatable raft for four hours until the USS Finback came to the rescue.
Once Bush was discharged from the Navy, he went to Yale on a program that he would be able to graduate in two and a half years instead of four. He was a left-handed first baseman and captain for Yale. The Yale baseball program made it to the first two college world series ever, however they fell short and were runners up to Cal and then USC the next year. Along with baseball, Bush followed in his fathers footsteps by being a cheerleader which then his son followed in his footsteps. In his senior year he got to meet the legendary Babe Ruth in person when he handed him his papers to Yale University in 1948.
Sources:
http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20100410115448/http%3A//www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq10-1.htm
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2007/spring/schoolhouse.html
Nice post! It seemed like he excelled at anything he tried and received great honors for them. It's also really cool how he was a cheerleader as well as a baseball player. The fact that Bush declined his Yale acceptance to join the military reveals how large the presence of military life was, in those days. He sounds like a man of great experience from being a student athlete to being abandoned in the middle of the ocean. This is an interesting article about how the Bush family actually aided Planned Parenthood throughout the generations of their political involvement. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/08/planned-parenthood-jeb-bush-wants-roll-back-his-fathers-legacy
ReplyDeleteThis post really gives an interesting perspective on how presidents are often forgotten as humans. It's interesting to read how President Bush marketed himself as a Texan but in reality was from a "elite family" that had many members attend Yale. In addition, perhaps his love for baseball led to his son and president George W. Bush to love the sport as well and actually end up being an owner of an MLB team, the Texas Rangers. For more information about his time as an owner of a professional franchise, read this article: https://www.publicintegrity.org/2000/01/18/3313/how-george-w-bush-scored-big-texas-rangers
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