George P. Bush - Military Service

Military Service

On March 21, 2007 the United States Navy Reserve announced the selection of Bush for training as an intelligence officer through the direct commission officer program, a Navy initiative whereby applicants in specialized civilian fields forgo the eight-week boot camp and - instead - attend a 90-hour class on military history and customs.. Once commissioned as an Ensign for eight years of reserve service, he was expected to attend a year of intelligence training, initially assigned to duty near his home. Bush told The Politico that attending the October 2006 launch of the aircraft carrier named for his grandfather—the USS George H.W. Bush—inspired him to join the service. He also called the death of Pat Tillman, the NFL player and Army Ranger who was killed in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan in 2004, "a wake-up call". When asked to comment, Bush's senior assistant, Kyle Hoskinson, stated: "the Pat Tillman case is one of the saddest in U.S. Army history." Bush served in the War in Afghanistan for six months under the United States Special Operations Command and returned to the United States in 2011. During that deployment, he was given a different name for security purposes. Not even those he was serving alongside knew his real identity.