November 12, 2020, 7:09 am*
As yesterday what Veterans Day, many people online shared photos of relatives who had served in various wars, to honor the service they provided their country.
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Reporter Ken Klippenstein, however, decided to take a different path.
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He tweeted Richard Grennell, the former Acting Director of the United States National Intelligence Agency under Trump, a photo of someone he claimed was his grandfather.
“Sir, my grandpa is a huge fan of yours, here he is as a young army lieutenant,” Klippenstein wrote. “If you could shout him out it’d make his day!”
Screenshots show Grenell reaching out and asking what the man in the photo’s name is. “Bill Calley,” Klippenstein told him.
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The man in the photo is, in fact, William Calley, an infamous war criminal and former Army officer involved in the killing of around 500 civilians in the Mỹ Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War.
But Grenell didn’t seem to know this important part of American history, and soon a “Thank you for your service, Bill Calley!” alongside the photograph.
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Other people realized what Klippenstein had done rather quickly, and some found it hilarious and horrifying that the guy Trump had chosen to be in charge of the country’s National Intelligence Agency didn’t pick up on the ruse.
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Others weren’t as thrilled with the prank, suggesting Veterans Day was the wrong time to redirect attention from veterans who served their country without becoming war criminals.
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Grenell eventually realized what had happened and denounced Klippenstein’s prank as a “sick joke” “at the expense of our great Vets.”
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*First Published: November 12, 2020, 7:08 am
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