Does anyone have any info on Clarks VietNam injury story?

[Ksec]

Ive seen a few things that skimmed the story but has anyone seen anything about this that gets into detail ?

[PSU84]

1. Boston Globe, Nov. 16-17

The Boston Globe ran a 2-part profile of Clark Nov. 16-17, written by Michael Kranish.

This is the part that describes the firefight where Clark was wounded:

The Boston Globe Sunday, November 16, 2003

WESLEY K. CLARK: CANDIDATE IN THE MAKING
Boy from Little Rock chooses military path

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff

Wesley K. Clark lay bleeding on the ground as the landscape around him echoed with the high-pitched ping-ping-ping of gunfire. It was Feb. 19, 1970, and the young Army captain had been on patrol near Saigon when he paused to peer down a trail that disappeared into the jungle. In an instant, a hellish hail of fire from AK-47s exploded all around. Clark saw blood oozing from his body.

"They're in there!" Clark shouted to a couple of soldiers at his side. "Get down, sir!" responded one of the soldiers, sniper Michael McClintic, who vividly recalls the moment. Pushing Clark to the ground -- and probably saving his life -- the Army sniper sprayed the jungle with covering fire. Clark said he called for backup and ordered nearby soldiers to set up a base of responding machine gun fire.

The 25-year-old Clark had waited years for a chance to engage the enemy, and now he was out of the fight from nearly the start. The Viet Cong ambush that nearly took his life that day would be the only significant combat Clark would experience over the course of an Army career spanning 34 years. But the episode set a course for a military life that both detractors and supporters describe as charmed from the start. First in his class at West Point, Clark carried the hopes of many high-ranking champions into the battlefield with him.

"How bad are you shot?" Clark's commanding officer, David C. Martin, asked when he reached Clark on the radio. "I don't think I'm shot too bad," Clark replied, according to Martin's recollection. Clark apparently did not realize the severity of four wounds to his shoulder, hand, and leg. Later Clark would recall: "I couldn't hold anything in my right hand, and I couldn't use my foot. I stumbled." Martin raced to a helicopter and flew to Clark's location.

An Army typist recorded the moment, according to a document found in the National Archives: "Urgent . . . Gd contact . . . area unsecure -- need jungle penetrator. . . . Lighthorse 21 en route." Within minutes, a second helicopter was overhead, dangling its "penetrator" lifeline into the jungle. Soldiers attached Clark to the dangling cord, and he was "extracted" and flown to a hospital 8 miles away.

McClintic, who was also hit by enemy fire during the ambush, received a Bronze Star with valor for heroic achievement in action. Clark was awarded the more prestigious Silver Star, reserved for "gallantry in action of marked distinction." While Martin originally wrote up Clark for a Bronze star with valor, a now deceased superior asked him to elevate the medal, and Martin said he agreed. Officers were often given higher medals than enlisted men in Vietnam, and a Silver Star added weight to Clark's military resume. The decision "suits me fine," said Martin, especially because Clark was "leading his people" and on foot patrol and retained control of the company.

For 33 years, Clark did not know the name of the person "who may very well have saved my life" until the Globe located McClintic in Michigan. Of his own action, Clark said, "I'm not going to say I was a hero. I think a hero is somebody who saves somebody else's life through risking his own life. What I did is I did my duty. My duty was to command the company. I got shot and I maintained command and gave the orders and directions." As for McClintic, Clark said the soldier "should have gotten something more . . . these awards were never fair."

[newyawker99]

5. PSU84

Per DU copyright rules
please post only 4
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.


NYer99
DU Moderator

[Bombtrack]

2. this article mentions it

http://www.maximonline.com/grit/articles/article_5504.html

The economy’s tanking; Iraq’s becoming a quagmire…Could time be running out for President Bush? Maxim’s Col. David Hackworth debriefs the general who plans to capture the White House.

Maxim, November 2003

You graduated number one at West Point and were a Rhodes scholar. You do anything besides study as a kid?
Yes. I played sports; baseball and football and basketball in the streets. But I was also active in the boys club. I was on the swim team and a camp counselor in the summer.

Now, before we get into the real serious stuff, what’s your favorite war movie?
I like The Longest Day.

Any skeletons in your closet?
No, no, I did not inhale.

OK, in Vietnam you were wounded and nearly discharged. How bad was it?
Not bad. I walked into a base camp and got greased. The guy emptied an AK magazine at me, and I turned just as he fired, so he stitched me up the right side of my body instead of taking me in the throat and gut. He shot the M-16 out of my hand and put a hole in my leg and another one through my shoulder. I was lying on the ground bleeding and yelling , “Get on your feet and assault now.” When I got back, the doctor said, “You got the million-dollar wound.” I said, “No!” I thought the million-dollar wound was when you lost your you-know-what.........

[kaitykaity]

3. See this article.

http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2003/030801_mfe_clark_1.html

His stride is at once jaunty and athletic and somewhat artificial, like the stride of a man who has devoted time to teaching himself how to walk . . . as, in fact, he has, after getting shot four times in Vietnam. Taught himself to walk again, without a limp, despite the fact that a quarter of his calf muscle was gone; taught himself to shake hands manfully, despite the loss of the muscle around his right thumb. He had to learn those things because, as his wife says, he was desperately afraid of being profiled out of the Army. Can't be a general if you're a gimp. The only thing he couldn't do was teach himself how to play basketball again, because no matter how many hours he spent alone in the gym practicing his foul shots, he couldn't stabilize the ball. . . .

[HoosierClarkie]

4. Here's 1st article. Enjoy!

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/clark/articles/2003/11/16/boy_from_little_rock_chooses_military_path/