Dan Rather's story about President Bush and the National Guard was founded on a lie. The basic lie was not the fraudulent documents, but rather that President Bush avoided combat in Vietnam by entering the national Guard. Rather it was the idea that President Bush would ever have been in combat if he had not joined the National Guard. He was the son of a Congressman, and even if drafted, he would not have been sent to Vietnam because the military did not like to have the son's of prominent men in the combat zone. Al Gore went after his father, who was running for reelection pulled strings to get his son sent to aid his campaign, which he was not doing well in. Al Gore was assigned as a journalist, and the military had to baby-sit him until they could get him shipped home after about six months. President Bush was in the National Guard after learning to fly the F102, a relatively difficult plane to fly, the pilots of which were statistically in more danger than infantrymen in Vietnam. Bush had around 500 hours in the F-102, a high total for a national Guard pilot.