war crimes – Military Murder Podcast

Episode 11-MURDER x2: Baby Faced Killer or American Hero? The Story of Clint Lorance

January 6, 2020 by militarymurderpodcast@gmail.com

afghanistan, army, murder, pardon, presidential pardon, war crimes

Episode 11-MURDER x2: Baby Faced Killer or American Hero? The Story of Clint Lorance

This is Part 1 of a 2-part episode where I discuss the Clint Lorance story. Clint Lorance enlisted in the Army in 2003. He quickly went up the enlisted ranks and then in 2008, he was accepted into the Army’s Green to Gold program where the Army pays a member full time military pay to go to college and get a degree, participate in ROTC and return as an officer. Clint successfully commissioned. In 2012, Clint was deployed to Afghanistan. The first part of his deployment was uneventful, as he was the liaison officer at the headquarters level.

However, he would soon be called to lead his own troops, when the leader of the 1st Platoon was injured by an IED. Clint quickly went to Strong Point Payenzi to lead the men.

But from Day 1, Clint made questionable comments and took odd (and maybe illegal) actions against the Afghanistan people in the surrounding village. On Day 3, Clint was on patrol with his men, when three Afghanistan men of fighting age were on one motorcycle on the other side of a field from the troop. One member of the troop told Clint about the men and Clint without asking any questions, ordered the men eliminated. The soldier fired, but missed. This halted the three-men in their tracks. They stopped the motorcycle and dismounted, approaching the Afghan National Army (ANA) members at the front of the platoon. The ANA gestured for the men to return to the motorcycle to await further instructions from the Americans and the men complied. Clint then ordered a different soldier to eliminate the men. The new soldier fired shots, killed two men,and hit the third man before he ran off.

Clint’s team conducted a battle damage assessment (BDA) and found no weapons or bomb making materials on the bodies. Clint then ordered a soldier to make a false report that a BDA was not accomplished.

Clint and his team continued on their route/mission. Soon, two soldiers were setting up on top of a building where they saw two men with radios looking up at them (the soldiers saw this as a threat and eliminated the men). Reports later revealed the men on the radios were heard saying they wanted to “do something to the Americans.”

After the patrol, the soldiers returned to base. The intel soldier in the group was required to report back to the headquarters all of the actions of the day. Before that soldier headed to HQ, Clint asked him, in not so many words, to exclude information about the BDA. But the soldier refused to lie. The soldier then reported all of the incidents of the day. On that same day, Captain Swanson ordered all of the men on that patrol to answer questions and two stories emerged. Clint’s version of what happened during the first engagement with the men on the motorcycle and everyone else’s. Clint was officially under investigation.

Join me next week, when I conclude the Clint Lorance story and discuss a family and a legal team that would stop at nothing to have Clint released from the nation’s military maximum security prison, Unites States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB), Fort Leavenworth, KS.

Both Images taken from Army Times – Clint Lorance (above) – Clint Lorance at USDB, Fort Leavenworth, KS (below)

Episode 11-12 Resources:

war-crimes

Episode 11-MURDER x2: Baby Faced Killer or American Hero? The Story of Clint Lorance

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