George H.W. Bush, KIA 1944?

According to the Naval Historical Center's summary of former President George H.W. Bush's wartime service record, planes piloted by Bush were downed twice during 1944. On 06-19-44, Bush made a forced water landing, and he and his crewmen were rescued by a Navy destroyer. On 09-02-44, Bush was the only survivor when his aircraft caught fire after being hit by anti-aircraft fire during an air raid against the Japanese base on Chi Chi Jima. Bush spent several hours in a raft off Chi Chi Jima before being rescued by a US submarine.

A Japanese boat from Chi Chi Jima tried to capture Bush, but was driven off by US aircraft which were circling over his raft. James Bradley's book Flyboys documents the grisly fates of the US Navy and Marine aviators who were taken prisoner and killed by the Japanese forces on Chi Chi Jima, a fate George Bush would have shared if the Japanese boat from Chi Chi Jima had captured him. According to the George Bush Presidential Library, George H.W. Bush served a US Congressman, US Envoy to China, US Ambassador to the United Nations, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Vice-President, President and fathered several children including current President George Bush, and Florida Governor Jeb Bush during the years after the war.

What if George Bush has been killed in 1944? His death would not have altered the outcome of the war, but how would his death in 1944 have altered subsequent events?

[ 18. December 2003, 06:58 AM: Message edited by: Crapgame ]

 

Well, obviously he and his son would have never become president.

But I don't deem the question too significant. If ANY person who died in the war would have survived or the pther way round, it would have altered world history completely, sooner or later - here the butterfly effect perfectly applies.

 

like Captain Miller said in SPR: "He better grow up to create a new vaccine or something..."

 

A very possitive and decisive thing in my opinion...