WASHINGTON (AP) – A packet of Texas Air National Guard records released Friday showed that the commanding officer of President Bush’s basic training unit took a special interest in him as a trainee and wrote to his father to praise his son.

Bush’s father, then a congressman from Texas, said in reply to the commander, “That a major general in the Air Force would take interest in a brand new Air Force trainee made a big impression on me.”

Bush went on to say that his son “will be a gung ho member” of the Air Force and that Air Force instructors had “helped awaken the very best instincts in my son.”

The letter and other material were the latest in a stream of documents released about Bush’s service three decades ago during the Vietnam War, when Bush’s critics say he got preferential treatment as the son of a congressman and U.N. ambassador.

The new packet of documents also contained two single-page orders documenting Bush’s guard training in May and June of 1973 after he returned from Alabama. The Texas training came after Bush spent more than a year away from his unit. Bush has said he left Texas to work on the unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of a family friend. Bush was authorized to train with an Alabama Air National Guard unit in September, October and November 1972. The one record directly showing Bush appeared at the Alabama unit is a record of a January 1973 dental exam. A history of the Alabama unit does not mention Bush but does mention the unit received brand-new dental equipment in late 1972.

The letter written by Bush’s father, former President Bush, was addressed to Maj. Gen. G.B. Greene Jr., commander of the training center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, where Bush took his basic training. The file does not contain Greene’s letter to Bush’s father, but shows the letter his father wrote back.

“I was surprised and very, very pleased to receive your letter of Aug. 27th,” Bush wrote, adding that he was impressed that a senior officer would take interest in a new trainee.

“Naturally, as a father I was pleased to read your comments about George,” Bush wrote. “He is anxiously looking forward to going to flight school and with parental pride, I do have the feeling that he will be a gung ho member of the U.S. Air Force. I think that he will make a good pilot as well.”

The letter went on to say that young Bush, on his first trip back home, was full of enthusiasm and kept the family up talking about his first instructor, Sgt. Henry Onacki, who had impressed Bush with his love of country and dedication to the Air Force.

“In this day and age when it has become a little bit fashionable to be critical of the military, I was delighted to see him return to our house with a real pride in the service and with a great respect for the leaders that he had encountered at Lackland.”