Bush remained obligated to train with his Texas unit or to perform substitute training elsewhere each month. On September 5, 1972, he requested permission to "perform equivalent duty" at the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Alabama "for the months of September, October, and November." He did not receive approval to do so, though his commanding officer recommended he be granted permission. He would have reported to Lieutenant Colonel William Turnipseed, the base commander, for drills on October 7 and 8, and November 4 and 5 (the September drill dates of the unit had already passed). Bush's grandfather, former U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, died of cancer on October 8, and Bush served as a pallbearer at the funeral in Greenwich, Connecticut. Turnipseed has said that he could not recall whether Bush reported on those occasions.