By Globe Staff and Wires, 11/16/99

AUSTIN, Texas - In a new book, Texas Governor George W. Bush says that while flying for the Air National Guard during the early 1970s, he was interested in a program that sent some Guard pilots to Vietnam. But Bush says the program was being phased out by that point and that he lacked enough flight hours to qualify for the war-zone assignment. Bush has insisted that no family influence was used to get him a slot in the Guard in 1968, during the height of the Vietnam War. After qualifying as an F-102 fighter pilot, Bush said, he heard that several fellow pilots had participated in a program called ''Palace Guard'' that rotated National Guard pilots to Vietnam to relieve active-duty pilots. ''A friend and fellow pilot, Fred Bradley, and I were interested in participating and we talked with Colonel Jerry Killian about it. He told us the program was being phased out, that a few more pilots would go, but that Fred and I had not logged enough flight hours to participate,'' Bush writes. (AP)

Trump campaigns in `Little Havana'

MIAMI - Donald Trump took his exploratory Reform Party presidential bid to Miami yesterday, wowing hard-line Cuban exiles who admire the billionaire real estate mogul's opposition to their homeland's communist government. Trump was met on the tarmac by leaders of the Cuban American National Foundation. Trump toured a local museum in the city's ''Little Havana'' neighborhood and viewed an exhibition memorializing Cuban exiles who died during the April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Referring to those killed in the invasion, Trump won more applause by criticizing the government of President John F. Kennedy, saying they had died ''all because of the fact you were let down by our country.'' (Reuters)

N.H.'s older voters back McCain in poll

CONCORD, N.H. - Senator John McCain is drawing much of his support in New Hampshire from older voters, according to two recent polls of people who plan to vote Feb. 1 in the nation's first presidential primary for the 2000 election. That could spell trouble for Texas Governor George W. Bush, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Bush is more popular with those under 45, but older people are more likely to vote. An American Research Group poll of 600 likely Republican primary voters last week showed McCain in a statistical tie with Bush for the first time, with Bush at 41 percent and McCain at 38 percent. The margin of error was 4 percentage points. Bush led by 30 percentage points among voters 18-24 and by 12 points in the 25-44 age group. But he trailed McCain by 11 to 12 points among voters 45 and older. (AP)