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WATCH: Marines Say Officer Who Pulled Baby Over Kabul Airport Wall Was Not Trump Rally Speaker

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The U.S. Marine Corps confirmed that the soldier who pulled a baby over a fence in a viral video of the Afghanistan withdrawal is not Lance Cpl. Hunter Clark, who is under investigation for speaking at a Trump “Save America” rally where both he and the former president said he was the soldier in the video.

Press officer Capt. Kelton Cochran of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, who did not identify the soldier who appeared in the video, told military magazine Task and Purpose that while there were numerous incidents of parents handing their small children off to U.S. soldiers throughout the evacuation process, Clark, who is accused of violating military rules about speaking at partisan events, was not the officer shown on tape during the handoff that went viral .

“Regarding the viral photo that began circulating around August 20, 2021, the Marine identified in that particular image was not LCpl Clark,” Cochran told the Washington Examiner. . .

Former President Donald Trump introduced Clark at a Saturday rally in Perry, Georgia, as “one of the Marines who bravely served in Kabul during the withdrawal and helped evacuate children over the airport and over the airport walls,” after which Clark addressed the crowd directly.

Clark, who spoke for less than a minute at the rally in his hometown, said he was “the guy who pulled the baby over the wall,” which he called “definitely probably one of the greatest things I’ve ever done in my entire life.” (Read more from “Marines Say Officer Who Pulled Baby Over Kabul Airport Wall Was Not Trump Rally Speaker” HERE)

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bymikey/30363517352

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Republicans Call on Marine Corps to Release Jailed LT. Col. Stu Scheller

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Republicans in the House and Senate are calling on the Marine Corps to release Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, who was thrown in a military jail this week after he criticized military leadership for the botched Afghanistan withdrawal on social media and continued posting about his disposition.

According to a Marine Corps spokesperson, Scheller is currently in pre-trial confinement in the Regional Brig for Marine Corps Installations East aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune pending an Article 32 preliminary hearing. The time, date, and location of the proceedings have not been determined.

The Marine Corps notes that he has not been charged with anything but the “general nature” of offenses being considered at the hearing are:

Article 88 (contempt toward officials)
Article 90 (willfully disobeying superior commissioned officer)
Article 92 (failure to obey lawful general orders)
Article 133 (conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman)

Scheller first caught the nation’s attention after he posted a short video of himself on Facebook criticizing his leadership on August 26, the day that 11 Marines, one Navy corpsman, and one Army soldier were killed during the Biden administration’s hastily-planned non-combatant evacuation operation in Kabul. (Read more from “Republicans Call on Marine Corps to Release Jailed LT. Col. Stu Scheller” HERE)

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Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jailed After Videos Criticizing Military Leadership

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A Marine Corps officer jailed after releasing a series of Facebook videos criticizing military leadership for the botched withdrawal of Afghanistan, as well as a series of scathing posts lambasting “hypocrite” former presidents and generals, now sits in a type of solitary confinement with no phone, visitors, books, or even paper, his parents told the Washington Examiner.

“I anticipated it. I ran the gamut of rage to tears,” said Cathy Scheller upon learning that her son Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller was arrested Monday. “I have taken up his cause. I will do everything I can to make sure this doesn’t disappear. I am very proud of him for standing for the service members and asking for accountability.”

Scheller was three years away from retirement when a suicide bomber killed 13 service members during the Afghanistan airlifts. This prompted him to release a now-viral video that accused leadership of lacking accountability for the disastrous reaction to the fall of Kabul at the hands of the Taliban.

He voluntarily resigned and forfeited his retirement after the first video, saying it was worth it to speak the truth. Military leaders apparently weighed their options, as Scheller wasn’t immediately arrested but was only ordered not to communicate on social media.

“Effective immediately upon your receipt below, you are hereby ordered to refrain from posting any and all material, in any form without exception, to any social media. In this context, the term ‘social media’ shall be construed very broadly to include any medium by which you may share information with groups of people…” Lt. Col. Scheller was told, according to a Sept. 25 Facebook post. (Read more from “Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jailed After Videos Criticizing Military Leadership” HERE)

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Marines Given Green Light to Carry Weapons on Bases for First Time

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By Washington Examiner. Marines and civilian personnel in Marine Corps law enforcement roles will be allowed to carry their personal concealed firearms while on base, the head of Marine Corps policy announced on Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. George Smith sent a memo to the entire force telling them that military police, criminal investigators, and Marine Corps Law Enforcement Program police officers will be allowed to carry concealed weapons off-duty. Approximately 3,200 individuals will be eligible to carry their personal firearms under the new policy, Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Joseph Butterfield told the Washington Examiner.

Smith’s memo follows last month’s shootings at Naval Air Station Pensacola and at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam near Honolulu. The attacks left five dead and nine injured. Pearl Harbor gunman Gabriel Romero, a Navy sailor, killed himself at the scene. Pensacola shooter Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, a Saudi Air Force second lieutenant, was shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies. . .

Only Marine Corps law enforcement personnel credentialed under the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, known as the LEOSA, will qualify under the new directive. The LEOSA allows active and retired civilian law enforcement to carry concealed weapons across the country, regardless of local laws. Prior to the new directive, Marine Corps law enforcement officials were only allowed to carry service weapons in the course of their official duties. They now will be able to carry their personal concealed weapons when engaging in off-duty activities, like visiting a base commissary. (Read more from “Marines Given Green Light to Carry Weapons on Bases for First Time” HERE)

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Starting Thursday, Nearly All Privately Owned Firearms Will Be Prohibited on Offutt AFB

By Stars and Stripes. Privately owned firearms will no longer be allowed on Offutt Air Force Base beginning Thursday, in a change to the Nebraska installation’s gun policy announced after a review conducted by the 55th Wing commander.

The new policy prohibits almost all personal firearms from base, ending a regulation that allowed individuals with Defense Department identification and concealed carry permits issued by Nebraska or certain other states to access the post with guns that were locked in their vehicles. The base announced the decision by 55th Wing commander Air Force Col. Gavin Marks on Monday in a Facebook post.

“Beginning Jan. 2, 2020, the 55th Wing commander has directed that the transportation of privately owned firearms on Offutt Air Force Base, with few exceptions, will be prohibited,” the Facebook post read. “… The commander’s intent for this change is that firearms will be effectively controlled and safely handled on Offutt AFB and is reflective of the full confidence in the 55th Security Forces Squadron’s ability to defend the installation and its personnel.”

Marks implemented the review of firearms policies on the post after taking command in June. Offutt, just south of Omaha, is home to some 8,000 troops, including the 55th Wing and the headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the U.S. nuclear enterprise among other responsibilities. (Read more from “Starting Thursday, Nearly All Privately Owned Firearms Will Be Prohibited on Offutt AFB” HERE)

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Marine Corps Rapid-Response Team Ordered To Africa To Thwart Another Benghazi Attack

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U.S. Marine CorpsU.S. Africa Command will get a new Marine Corps rapid response force as part of a plan to beef up its crisis response capabilities.

More Leathernecks will be at the ready after the military was unable to get timely aid to Benghazi, Libya last year, during a terror attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and members of his security detail.

Gen. Carter Ham, Africom’s commander, told Congress this week about the planned new force, Stars and Stripes reported Friday.

“The Marine Corps have proposed a new … Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force specifically tailored for crisis response in Africa,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The force had not yet been formally approved, he said, but added, “we think that that will be available in the relatively near future.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Marine Corps to Cut 20,000 Active Duty Positions

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The United States Marine Corps is set to shed more than 20,000 active duty positions in the coming years and have already commenced a process meant to force some senior officers into an early retirement.

The Marines are on course to cut around 4,000 positions a year through 2017, decreasing the total number of Marines to 182,100 from its peak last year of 202,100, according to a major scale-down order that was quietly issued last year.

The reduction in forces could leave the elite fighting force underprepared to battle multiple regional threats, particularly those in the Middle East, according to military experts.

The impending cuts are independent of the $1.2 trillion in mandatory cuts, otherwise known as sequestration, which will take place next month if Congress fails to reach a preventative deal.

“The effect will be that there will not be sufficient Marines available to both be ‘America’s 9-1-1 force’ and to be ready for sustained ground combat,” said Steven Bucci, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense who warned that the decreased number of Marines will leave the force overstretched.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Military Ends Four Army Officers’ Careers for Accidentally Sending Korans to Burn Pits

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Photo credit: Roel Wijnants

Army officials said that four Army officers and two enlisted soldiers received letters of reprimand for sending boxes of Korans from a prison library to a burn pit at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Although an Army investigation that was made public on Monday found that the soldiers did not act out of “malicious intent” to disrespect the Koran or defame Islam, investigators concluded that they did not follow proper procedures, were ignorant of the importance of the Koran to Afghans and got no clear guidance from their leaders in a chain of mistakes.

The Marine Corps said three non-commissioned officers involved in a video that shows four Marines urinating on the body of a dead Taliban fighter received “nonjudicial punishments,” which could include letters of reprimand, a reduction in rank, forfeit of some pay, physical restriction to a military base, extra duties or some combination of those measures.

The Marine Corps did not release the results of its investigation into the episode because, officials said, there were continuing inquiries about higher-ranking officers in the unit involved, which was part of the Third Battalion, Second Marine Regiment, based in Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Military officials said the punishments were not as light as they might seem to the public — letters of reprimand effectively end most military careers — but it was unclear how they would be viewed in Afghanistan, where the Koran burning touched off days of riots across the country and compelled Mr. Karzai to call for a public trial.

American military officials said they were hopeful that Afghans would take the news calmly. “We have conveyed our condolences to the government and the Afghan people,” said Col. Thomas W. Collins, a spokesman for the international military coalition in Afghanistan. “These were both terrible mistakes.”

Read more from this story HERE.