07:47 AM CST on Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Overland (KMOV) – There is a St. Louis connection to the controversy surrounding President George Bush’s National Guard records.

KMOV Mr. Bush speaking to fourth-graders and a roundtable-style conversation on education at Pierre Laclede Elementary School last month in St. Louis

For more than three decades those records have been locked away at the Federal Military Records Center in Overland. The center director tells News 4 that the records were removed from a vault at that facility just a few days ago and sent to the National Guard headquarters at the Pentagon in Washington.

The records are at the heart of allegations that Bush did not report for service with the Air National Guard in 1972.

Bush says he served in an Alabama unit, but the Boston Globe is reporting that there are no records to prove it.

The president defended his record during a weekend interview with NBC.

“There may be no evidence but I did report, otherwise I wouldn't have been honorably discharged," he said.

Those files may contain rosters and sign in sheets indicating his service. President Bush told NBC he would authorize the release of some documents to show he did serve in Alabama.