Marine pictured at Kabul rescuing baby under investigation for appearance at Trump rally
LCpl Hunter Clark
In a now famous photo of the chaos at the Kabul Airport during our shamefully executed Afghanistan withdrawal back in August shows USMC Lance Corporal Hunter Clark rescuing a baby from the crowd and bringing it over the wire. The act was a bright spot in an otherwise dark time.
The other day, Clark appeared at a Trump rally in Georgia and gave a brief speech to the crowd thanking them for their support. He’s now under investigation from his command for potentially violating the ban on active duty US military participation in partisan political activities. DoD directive number 1344.10 is the operative order. It says an active duty servicemember may not;
Participate in partisan political fundraising activities..rallies, conventions (including making speeches in the course thereof)…Participation includes more than mere attendance as a spectator
It would seem the young Marine done f-ed up here. The directive allows for the participation if prior command approval is given. I’ll guess it was not. Clark didn’t endorse any political candidate nor did he implore the audience to vote in any direction. He was called on stage ostensibly as a show of support for the military. Will that be enough to save him? That’s the question.
Task and Purpose has a story up about it that some of our readers directed us to in another thread.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", Marines, Politics
Absent any political endorsement, fundraising, or exhortations to support an issue, sure seems like some lawer wanting to make a name for hisself on 1st Amendment issues could have a field day with this. And should.
Different spanks for different ranks.
I do believe that the Military has more important things to do than to persecute this young man. It’s Friday, make sure your SHARPE Training is up to date, and PUT ON YOUR PT BELT!
While neither here nor there on the political aspects of this, for clarity, the article says the Marines clarified that LCpl Clark is not the person in the now-famous photo.
Hopefully this just means he pulled another baby over the wire, and is absolutely the hero we all want him to be, and this shows the world that such acts are common among Marines. And, if so, hopefully that saves his ass from the worst of it, as relatively harmless lapses in judgement by E-3s shouldn’t become political fodder for either side.
Probably should change the title of the article since he isn’t that guy.
Nah, Just say “We’re Sorry, Our Bad.”
It worked when Biden droned our of the U.S. supporters and 7 children.
Hey, a dude with seven kids, anybody could make that mistake in Afghanistan.
ChipNASA,
It’s a Stolen Valor website here.
Let’s hope NO ONE here defends, denies, or pretends
about what now appears to be a military embellisher.
Remember the shadowbox of school custodian Mr. Bob?
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=107605
We’ve seen plenty of war veterans EMBELLISH their service.
When they start telling phony combat stories and wearing CIB and Silver Stars,
claiming to kill Bin Laden or capture Saddam,
is when Stolen Valor websites get involved.
Some are spit out here with their own articles.
Remember elementary school custodian Mr. Bob?
Let’s all be mindful of truth and reality here,
and NOT let our personal politics get in the way
of a possible military embellisher.
Last thing anyone here should be doing,
is behaving the same way that phony deniers and phony defenders behave.
Being a website fan, a Trump fan, or a Scheller fan
doesn’t give this guy a free pass,
if he never held the baby,
and the US Marines say publicly that it wasn’t him.
5JC,
Bingo.
No, but he is the guy holding the wire down,the black glove. Fact he was there and did help.
I know his Mom,and she is completely upset how this all git Is blown out of proportion. He did not know they were going to call him up.
That is about all I am going to say or share. Its not stolen Valor.
I could understand a nice long talk with the 1SG about this, and clarifying exactly what the “Thou Shalt Nots” are concerning political activity and the military. It’s a very fine line and very open to interpretation. But to raise it to the level of an investigation is ludicrous and excessive. Whichever Marine rescued the baby deserves recognition, not investigation.
Death by Power Point at 1300 Saturday…..
What a shitty and unnecessary addition to the Friday Afternoon “Thou Shalt Not” speech!
You haven’t truly served unless you’ve caused a safety brief.
We were always told to stay out of politics and politics-related stuff, so why would that change?
The investigation is the (spiteful) punishment for being a guest at an Evil Orange Man rally. It’ll go one for long enough for him to miss leave, promotion, etc. for being flagged, then suddenly conclude it found nuttin’.
When Milley can call our enemies and offer to inform them of a potential first strike in a treasonous effort to undermine the previous administration without any negative result, this young man’s momentary lapse hardly seems to carry enough wind to ruffle the feathers of a pigeon never mind a disciplinary option…
It’s only “political” when Trump’s involved or something…
He probably got in trouble because a photo surfaced of him with his hands in his pockets (which is really how COVID-19 started), or that he wasn’t wearing a glow belt while attending the rally.
2 hours ago…
[‘The Marine identified in that particular image was not LCpl Clark,’
a Marine spokesman says]
[Marines deny troop at Trump rally
was man who saved baby in viral Afghanistan photo]
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-rally-marines-kabul-baby-b1930744.html
He is the guy holing wire and holding on to his Kit.
He was there and did help.They are doing anything they can to make him look bad, because if Trump and his Families support if Trump. His family has a five generations of service, they are proud Military Family until this BS.
LCpl Clark is a white extremist in the SecDef’s playbook.
<<< FaceBook Memories
(1 of 4 posts)
[October 2, 2016
Trump Rally, Manheim, PA.
Packed like sardines.
Trump was 1½ hours late, due to rain and fog vs. a helicopter.
The crowd lit up on his arrival.
He went on a bit long……
and put out a few new zingers, too.]
As usual, more lies from a Trump rally camp. A Marine spokesman stated that this guy was not the one that took hold of that baby, and because he appeared at a political rally…he’s in DEEP do do. Now, the billion dollar question is, was he showing support for the military or Trump? Or BOTH? Since he was at a Trump rally, the balance tilts toward the position that he was supporting Trump, not the military. This guy sure got his ten seconds of fame by lying thru his teeth.
He did’t lie. He said he was part of the team that pulled the baby over the wire. He is the guy with the black gloves on holding the Sgt that grabbed the baby. He was there and helped. He did not know they were going to call him up. He was there to honor his Team mates. He never said anything about himself or Trump period.
Trump presented him as the one grabbing that little baby, and he did nothing to correct Trump’s statement, hence he let people think he was the one who grabbed the little baby. Of course he knew he was going to get called up, he had to have known he was going to say a few words on the subject on the stand; the people who planned the event got him up there, for they knew what they were presenting to the public
Mason,
Time to change the article headline.
The Fu of Google shows,
that many sites that ran this story wrong have provided updates/corrections,
and changed their headlines to something more accurate,
from “Marine who rescued” to “Marine who says…”
https://www.google.com/search?q=“marine+who+says”
He never said he was the exact guy who pulled the baby over. He was the one with the black gloves on holding the Sgt and holding wire down.
I suggest if you don’t have first hand knowledge and just going off what media the Trump hating media says, just sit back.
His Congressman and lawyers for family are getting involved.They have photos and vedio proving he was there.
Good morning, NECC.
No one here ever said he wasn’t there.
Of course, he was there.
He served honorably, too.
I hope LCPL Clark has the answers… for the Marines.
As a father of 2 Marines,
I would never want to find my daughter or son,
or myself as the parent,
in this type of an unfortunate pickle.
Good luck.
Sincerely.
He is the one that grabbed the baby after the Sgt pulled him over. Funny but the command is now not talking. Thus is because they are digging themselves in a whole, because they are being showed evidence that he was the second guy who pulled the baby over.
[…] Hat tip: This Ain’t Hell […]
Trump presented him as the one grabbing that little baby, and he did nothing to correct Trump’s statement, hence he let people think he was the one who grabbed the little baby.
He told him after he was caught in moment, never said he was the exact one. He us in photo.
That is all I am going to say. His Lawyers are now involved if you want to keep going you can I don’t care you just need to watch what you say because this page is being monitored have a great da.
He say, ‘I was the one who grab the baby” and the world presumed he was the one in the picture, and he said nothing. Look, I don’t give a fig who monitors this site, but your presenting distorted data on this incident. The photo is there, and a Marine commander stated that it was not Clark..what more do you all need?
What do you not understand he is in the photo and helped pull baby over. Have a nice day. By he and the Sgt are friends and have talked about this.