Sunday, December 27, 2015

Body of Missing Marine Sgt. Tristan Clinger Found

UPDATE DECEMBER 28, 2015
Death of Marine from joint base under investigation
NJ.com
By Kevin Shea
December 28, 2015

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST — The death of a Marine assigned to a unit at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst remained under investigation Monday by federal authorities, officials said.

Sgt. Tristan Clinger was found dead Saturday on the base. His wife reported him missing on Dec. 20, said base spokesman Air Force Maj. Omar Villarreal.

Clinger is originally from Jefferson County, Ky. outside Louisville. He was 28 years old.

Villarreal said the Marine's death was under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and they are being assisted by military authorities on the joint base.

Clinger was a helicopter mechanic with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 772, part of the Marine Aircraft Group 49 on base.

The unit is in the Marine reserves, but Clinger was on active duty, base officials said.
read more here
Search for Missing Marine, Father Ends in Tragedy
NBC 10 News
By David Chang and Morgan Zalot

The week-long search for a missing local Marine ended in tragedy this weekend when his body was found during a search on Saturday, according to his family and a search team leader. Officials and relatives have not yet said where Sgt. Tristan Clinger was found or how he died.

Clinger, 28, a father of two, went missing on Dec. 20 around 4 p.m. when he left Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst on foot, according to his wife.
read more here

Marine Sgt. Tristan Clinger, 28, who has served in the military for five years, was last seen around 4 p.m. on Dec. 20 at the joint base, NBC10 reported.

UPDATE from FOX

“When you're in the military, like he felt that he couldn't get help because he felt that if he tried to get help, they would kick him out, and he would lose his job," his wife told FOX29. "And he just saw his life crumbling from that point, so he was afraid to get help.”
Any more questions, see "resilience" training feeding the stigma of getting help to heal along with the bad paper discharges.

6 comments:

  1. I'm heartbroken. Tristan was the best friend of my oldest son. His family will be in my prayers. May he rest in peace.

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  2. This is indeed a tragedy. I think it's important to note that Sgt Clinger had never deployed so Combat PTSD was not an issue. It's sad when I read the comments others have made regarding his fear of being "kicked out" for depression or losing a security clearance. For it to affect your clearance it has to be combined with other issues (criminal, financial, extreme alcohol abuse, etc.) It's true "Psychological Conditions" is an adjudicative guideline for clearance but there are many mitigating factors and stringent criteria to meet before it affects your clearance. As far as separation goes, even if you are diagnosed with a personality disorder you won't necessarily get "kicked out." There has to be a medical assessment and a non-medical assessment that basically states you can't do your job because of the personality disorder (this is straight from the Marine Corps separation manual MCO 1900.16F). You will NOT get kicked out for depression, or reprimanded. We take annual training classes yearly that emphasize this. You will also NOT lose your security clearance for being depressed. The dissemination of this BAD information is NOT helping things.

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  3. Hmm, considering you're posting as "anonymous and got a lot wrong, not taking you too seriously.
    You do know that PTSD comes after trauma and that it hits humans after they survived something that could be anything from weather related, to accidents to crimes, careers and military in general right?
    You must also know that the DOD has been doing their "resilience" training for the non-deployed as well as those with multiple deployments but as enlisted numbers went down, deployments into combat zones were reduced, suicides did not drop accordingly. Oh, by the way, the "assessments" you're referring to have been proven to not be right but the DOD doesn't have to count them anymore. The VA does when they can prove they should have gotten help instead of being kicked out.
    You made a lot of claims but as over 25,000 news and government reports on this site have shown, doesn't really amount to much at all that is actually truthful. So try telling that to the "More than 140,000 troops have left the military since 2000 with less-than-honorable discharges, according to the Pentagon." reported by the LA Times in April or maybe answer how it is that after all these years of "training" suicides actually went up when you factor in current military and discharged.
    OEF and OIF veterans are triple the suicide rate of civilians even after all that "training" you mentioned. Your information is not helpful when they end up paying the price. And oh, by the way, the "fear" in the article came from his wife and bet she knew what he was going through better than some "anonymous" person does.

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  4. To Anonymous - Not the time or the place to post this! Have some respect for the family!

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  5. Prayers for his family and friends, so sad. So sorry for your loss

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  6. UPDATE January 7, 2016

    UPPER SANDUSKY — A funeral for Marine Sgt. Tristan M. Clinger, 28, of Lakehurst, New Jersey, will be held at 4 p.m. Friday at Lucas-Batton Funeral Home, Upper Sandusky (419-294-1985). Visitation will be held four hours prior to the funeral on Friday. Sgt. Clinger died on Dec. 26, 2015 in New Jersey. Memorials may be made to the Tristan M. Clinger children’s education fund in care of the funeral home, or the Suicide National Hotline at Suicide.org, 122 I St., Chula Vista, Calif. 91910 or www.suicide.org/donate.html.
    http://thecourier.com/obituaries/2016/01/05/1451973808/

    ReplyDelete

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