PTI 961….Thanks partly to our good friend Dan Rather, I figure the Bush National Guard story is pretty much a dead letter. Still, every once in a while something new and tantalizing appears, and today Paul Lukasiak presents us with yet another mystery: what does separation code PTI 961 mean?
To start with, here’s the relevant snip from George Bush’s discharge from the Texas Air National Guard to the Air Force Reserves:
PTI stands for “Personnel Transaction Identifier,” and Paul reports that a transfer to a different command would normally be a PTI 201.
However, when an “action is reported by the 9xx PTIs” it represents a “loss to the Air Force strength.” In other words, despite the fact that Bush had almost eight months left on his six year Military Service Obligation at the time, Texas Air National Guard officers were signaling that Bush was essentially worthless to the Air Force, and should not even be retained in the “Ready Reserves” for call up in the event of a national emergency.
Is this right? It’s hard to say for sure because although we know the general intent of the 9xx series PTIs, we don’t know precisely what PTI 961 means. Apparently it’s been lost in the mists of time.
But who knows? There’s bound to be someone out there who remembers what PTI 961 means. Maybe one of them will read this and let us know.
UPDATE: False alarm. Apparently PTI 961 merely means “change of residence.”
