Marine Lance Corporal Hunter Clark, a Marine who claims that he is the soldier shown lifting a baby over razor wire in Afghanistan on August 19, is now under investigation by his unit after attending a rally featuring former president Donald Trump on September 25.
The child’s family was apparently attempting to get the child out of the quickly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan after the Biden administration’s bungled withdrawal of military forces from the country. In an act of desperation, the family passed the infant to a soldier leaning over a wall festooned with razor wire at Hamid Karzai International Airport near Kabul.
At Trump’s Save America Rally in Perry, Georgia, Clark introduced himself as “the guy that pulled the baby over the wall,” and said “it’s definitely probably one of the greatest things I’ve done in my entire life.”
“I just want to thank all the support from all y’all. It really means a lot and I’m glad to be home now,” Clark told the crowd.
Now, Clark’s unit, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, is investigating whether he violated the U.S. military’s ban against active duty troops engaging in partisan political activity. The Defense Department does not allow personnel to “speak before a partisan political gathering, including any gathering that promotes a partisan political party, candidate, or cause.”
Clark spoke at the rally for only a minute and did not endorse Trump or any of the three candidates that the former president was stumping for. He did not wear his Marine uniform at the rally.
“The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) has initiated a command investigation regarding LCpl Hunter Clark’s attendance at the event last weekend to determine if any DoD policies were violated,” Captain Kelton J. Cochran, a spokesman for the MEU, told Task and Purpose. “Any details pertaining to this incident are not releasable while the investigation is being conducted.”
Clark’s unit claims that he was not the Marine shown in the viral video of August 19 and could not confirm if he was even one of the Marines shown on the wall at the airport.
“Regarding the viral photo that began circulating around August 20, 2021, the Marine identified in that particular image was not LCpl Clark,” Cochran said in a statement.
Cochran also noted that there were several incidents of desperate Afghan parents handing their children to Marines during the frenzied withdrawal of Americans from Afghanistan.
Clark’s brief moment of time with former president Trump caused left-wing media to go into full destroy mode, with CNN even running a “fact check” about whether Clark was who he said he was. “The most trusted name in news” even harassed Clark’s mother when they couldn’t get a hold of him personally.
“He’s not going to comment on that,” Clark’s mother Peggy reportedly told CNN.
“He’s asked that I not give out any information right now,” Clark’s mother said. “He can’t do any interviews or speak with anybody right now. I’m sorry.”
Clark’s appearance at the Trump rally comes at a time when the military appears to be cracking down on what it deems unacceptable political behavior.
Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller, a former Marine battalion commander, is currently being held in pre-trial confinement at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, after allegedly violating four offenses of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The charges are contempt toward officials, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, failure to obey an order, and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.
Scheller’s real “crime” was a Facebook video in which he criticized military leadership and asked them to take responsibility for the fiasco unfolding in Afghanistan.
In that video, Scheller had the gall to speak the truth regarding the situation in Afghanistan: “People are upset because their senior leaders let them down, and none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability or saying, ‘We messed this up.’”
Scheller’s detention prompted 27 Republicans, led by Representative Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) to write a letter requesting an immediate review of the colonel’s confinement.
When General Mark Milley called his counterpart in China and promised to warn him if a U.S. attack was imminent, was that not also a breach of the Uniform Code of Military Justice? Certainly, committing an act of treason has to be against that time-honored code.
In today’s U.S. military, it seems that in order to speak one’s mind, one has to be of the right political persuasion. Otherwise, they’ll throw the book at you.
