Full cardiac arrest, where the heart just stops, comes out of the blue. My grandfather died that way. He said goodbye to my grandma and nose dived right into his soup.

I had a heart attack at 42. The day before, I though I had the flu. The morning of my attack, I collapsed, with no warning to me or those around me. His having a heart attack out of the blue is entirely possible. It happens every day. That's one of the things they teach you about in cardiac rehab. Some people show classical symptoms, while other show none.

Dmiller, it does happen. My father got up for work one morning. Stood up at the table to get his tea, and he was dead before he hit the floor. No history. We don't know if he had any pain or warning signs before, probably no more than this soldiers wife does. It might have been a twinge. You just don't know.

I feel feel badly for the family. It's always a shock when a family member dies like this. There's so much unknown. It's so sudden. You don't get a chance to say goodbye.

As for the conspiracy freaks, you can't hide a bullet wound. If there was a bullet hole in the closet was it there before this incident? Did she hear a shot fired? Even with silencer, with the mic on, she should have heard something.

The family can have their own autopsy performed to see if the initial report was right or not.

My best friend, early 30s, non-smoker and only social drinker and quite fit. Dropped dead without a mutter or any sign anything was wrong. He was a painter and amongst his co-workers at the time. Cause|? Massive coronary, doctor said he was dead before he hit the floor. Massive heart attacks can be very thorough, very quick and very final.

Do you know what's more rare?

Being shot in the head while on a skype call to your wife.

Here's the complicated thing. He's facing the computer: if the bullet went through his head and through the closet in the back then his head would go BACKWARDS, the wife would see the wound, and the bullet would have to come from behind the computer, and would have to be from the direction that this guy was facing. You'd think he would make a sign of seeing something.

If the bullet came from the closet, then someone would have had to shoot him from INSIDE the closet, shoot through the closet door, and even if the bullet lodged in this guy's brain, the shooter wouldn't be a ble to leave while on the skype call.

I think it's more plausible he went into cardiac arrest or had an aneurisym. (sp?)

more than likely, you're an idiot

Industrial Strength - You are a real a$$hole.

The wife should have the right to get access to her husband's body. If what the military says is true, an autopsy will confirm it was a heart attack that caused his death.

It's called sudden death syndrome. Not rare at all. The person drops dead instantly.

His family should find some relief in him not suffering a long painful death. I can only hope to go so quickly.

Unless things have changed this guy comes home in a sealed casket and it takes an act of congress to get access to the body.

Really? Try again - with credible comments.

One of my relative also died in a similar fashion. All she said was "hmmm", and was dead.

My 55 year old father came home from dinner with my mom, dropped a glass of water and was dead before he hit the floor. Dropping dead is not rare. My father was in perfect health.

Have you known anyone that has had a heart attack? My mother had one and had no warning. My cousin's mother sat down in a chair and was dead before she finished sitting down. Yes, dmiller sudden heart attacks can and do happen.

sudden death - Death occurring unexpectedly and instantaneously or within one hour of the onset of symptoms in a patient with or without known preexisting heart disease. Sudden death due to cardiac conditions occurs in the U.S. at the rate of one a minute. It may be caused by cardiovascular conditions, including ischemic heart disease, aortic stenosis, coronary embolism, myocarditis, ruptured or dissecting aortic aneurysm, Stokes-Adams syndrome, stroke, pulmonary thromboembolism, and other, noncardiovascular-related disorders, such as electrolyte imbalance and drug toxicity. Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, 19th Edition emphasis added

To all you conspiracy theorists, please note that sudden death is not all that uncommon, even among people with absolutely no symptoms or history.

dmiller: look up widowmaker.

You and jimpy are made for each other.

My biggest question is why? What does the Government have to gain by covering up an Army Nurses death? He isn't highly ranked. He doesn't have a high ranking position in the Military. So why say heart attack instead of death by bullet??

Conspiracy retards always find coverups where none exist. You think that somehow "finding" coverups that you manufactured yourselves validates your useless existence on this planet.

So people, WHO do you believe? Either way somebody is lying.

My father, a West Point graduate and commissioned officer in the USAF, was murdered in 1968, a month to the day after completing a Pentagon assignment... he received a phone call and went out one night... a fate shared by other officers and families of especially the best and the brightest. His brother, an undertaker, went over his body with a fine toothed comb. I don't like to talk about what he found... None of it was recorded in his OERs, just DEEVOLVE stamp...

Occam's Razor applies in all cases. The simplest explanation is usually the answer.

rfrisch, nobody has to be lying. The wife thought she saw a bullet hole, but perhaps it wasn't (she was on Skype - how well could it be seen?), or it was from some previous incident. The facts of the case (he slumped forward) don't make sense with a bullet hole in the closet behind him, in any case. If the bullet came from in front of him, he would have been blown backwards, not forward. If someone was hiding in the closet and shot him through the door, and there was a Skype feed for 2 hours, then he couldn't have left without being noticed.

You could have just stopped at "I am no doctor" and saved yourself some embarassment.

My husband is a nurse with the military. He doesn't know everything about medicine either. There are certain things that they are specifically trained to do, such as put IV's in, dish out medicine, and then if they end up going into combat, they take a 3 month course in combat medicine. I doubt that you learn very much in the 6-8 months of training that you get, compared to the 2+ years that hospital nurses are required to have, or the 6+ years that doctors have. Plus, they are in a situation where maybe he had flu like symptoms but assumed it was from the food or the water, or perhaps he had just done strenuous PT that left him sore and achy and so he didn't distinguish a chest pain from sore muscles. Knowing what symptoms are and experiencing them yourself are two very different things, as no two human beings are the same.

ready2change - actually officers (you should know this as a military spouse) are required to have a degree. Also their training is a bit different since normally they have a degree in their MOS. The 3 months you're talking about are 91W training at Ft. Sam Houston aka. Combat Medic. That's for enlisted - not officers. Also, that training is a paramedic course (not an EMT course). Not just some random facts and only the parts you need. You're literally trained in 3 months in everything a paramedic would know.

Now, while the random massive heart attack theory sounds plausible I would think he would've had some symptoms prior to it. Normally they're overlooked because they are so minute and benign. Especially on deployment when stress levels are already high, most symptoms are attributed to simply that - stress. One would expect a trained medical professional to notice these signs but again, he was deployed.

That being said, something does seem a bit cloak and dagger about all of it but it could be circumstantial.

6 years 18D

Really.......why does a hole in a door or piece of furniture have to be a bullet hole? No mention of gunshot noise. Also, read up on sudden death syndrome. Then you'll understand a little better how that works.

Please read my post above, #2.15. Sudden death from cardiac sources occurs about once per minute in the U.S., according to Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, frequently with no warning symptoms, and no history of cardiac problems. And what the wife saw as a bullet hole could have been a dark spot on the surface of the door, it could have been a knot hole, it could have been a bullet hole that happened sometime earlier. If she didn't see a bullet hole in him then the rest is all conjecture.

I'm sure that, being a nurse, Mr. Clark was familiar with sudden cardiac death. Often, the very first sign of heart disease is a massive, sudden heart attack. And yes, people do just literally drop over dead. I'm sorry for Mrs. Clark and her daughters' loss.

Really.......why does a hole in a door or piece of furniture have to be a bullet hole?

Really......I have a hole in my underwear right now. It has more to do with burritos than gunfire.

Hush now! How dare you enlighten the majority of idiots posting here who are spoon-fed what the media gives them, and they swallow it down happily. They are so comfy in their thoughts that our government doesn't lie to them, our military takes care of their own (ask any homeless vet... oh wait, I must be making that up too.)
I would like to hear what the wife has to say since she was the one talking to him when he died. But wait, she already told what she saw. If America would wake up, realize all news media is controlled and biased, and yes, your pretty little rights are being taken away every single day - you might find it plausable. However, no one wants the truth. They don't want to believe the government tactics.

I say it's very possible this man got ahold of the wrong information, was found out, and silenced. Or someone with a vendetta in the Army did him in. And for those of you who will mock this... just go back to your TV sets and obey. Our military has been covering up things since the '50s!!!
As far as heart attacks, I have seen four of them. There is usually a facial expression made when the person has the heart attack. Even a sudden, massive one. His wife said his head was KNOCKED FORWARD, and a bullet hole was in the closet door.
Now, let me enlighten you on one thing: NOT EVERY BULLET GOES THROUGH THE HEAD AND SPLATTERS THE SCREEN! You do realize there are many, many different types of bullets out there, don't you? You can have a bullet that sprays pellets... or one that makes a nice, neat entrance but explodes inside & never exits. The man didn't slump forward, he didn't fall forward... his head was KNOCKED forward!

So Mr Krinkle, with all of your wisdom, please tell me if his head was knocked forward (presumably by the force of the bullet hitting him from behind) then how did the bullet hit the door behind him? Because that is what we are basing this entire story about him being shot on. The wife says she saw a bullet hole in the door behind him. I'm not sure if you've ever used skype, but the picture quality is not HD, by any means. My first thought when I saw this story is how would she be able to discern if what she saw was a bullet hole. More likely, knowing that her husband was in a war zone, she assumed he was shot and took a spot on the door as a bullet hole. But lets not let common sense get in the way of a very good conspiracy theory!

By the way, just because you've seen a few people have heart attacks, doesn't mean they are all the same. Just scroll up to read the many comments from people whose relatives died from heart attacks with no warning, change of expression or anything. Just collapsed.

silly lu door behind him, bullet goes though door into head thus forcing his head forward

basic physic. to many of you dont understand this simple little point of motion

Yes, it's cool how a gunman was able to shoot through a door and still get a kill shot. "basic physic" would suggest the bullet's trajectory might change.

And then he was able to hide in a closet for two hours until someone showed up to turn the camera off. Good thing nobody thought to look inside the closet, or he might have gotten caught.

lostflorida unless the bullet hit something solid and two pieces of of ballsa wood and the cardboard support from witch most interior doors (i.e) closet door

are made from, and before you say it metal does not stop bullet if door was made of metal not saying i know what the door was made from

that wasnt my point anyways bullet from behind will push your head forward over your head i guess

We had a sales man die talking to a customer the same way typing at the key board and just slumped face forwarded and died heart attack.

My aunt called my grandmother for a ride. My grandmother got there within 10 minutes and my aunt appeared to be asleep sitting on the couch. Dead of a heart attack with no outward signs of pain - contorted position, slumped over, glasses askew, etc.

Also had a friend that was at a card game and was lying on a couch. He sat up and said somethig to the group at the card table and gave them "the finger" and lay back down - dead. The others there thought he was just joking and didn't ake it seriously until it was his turn for a round of cards.

My uncle was talking with another uncle and just dropped dead, no warning. My sister's mother-in-law was playing poker and just dropped dead, no warning. My company's accountant was at the annual Christmas party chatting when he fell to the floor, dead, no warning. Let's see that's three times, nope, I'd say it was not unusual at all.

My grandmother was sitting at the lunch table with my parents, she just fell forward - dead. My dad had been lying in bed with his wife talking about the days activities, she went to get her coffee, and heard him hit the floor, dead. When I was working in AAA Baseball, we had a lady come in, she'd been at every game since the ballpark opened. She sat down in her seat and died before the her sister got to her seat next to her. It's called Sudden Death Syndrome. And you don't have to be in your later years to get caught by it. Look at some of the athletes that have passed recently. Especially that one in Arizona last week, here for the Olympics training.

A friend of mine's sister came home from work, (in a snowstorm) sat down, took 1 boot off, died so fast she still had the other boot on. Autopsy showed a sudden massive heart attack. No priors.

We had a sales man die talking to a customer the same way typing at the key board and just slumped face forwarded and died.

What is SO unbelievably tragic is that it took 2 hours for family and friends to contact someone over there who could check on him. That must have been absolute living hell for the family.

But hopefully they'll have some peace of mind knowing that he apparently died painlessly and instantly, and that even if someone had been there within 2 minutes, there was almost certainly nothing that could've been done.

So, so sad. My thoughts are with Capt. Clark, his wife and family. I hope they find some measure of peace.

There is never any peace of mind when a relative drops dead of a massive heart attack. My father dropped dead at work with a cup of coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other. No one could revive him no matter how they tried. Dying suddenly leaves many unsaid words, expressions of love or preparation for your survivors. You may not feel anything but your family feels it forever.

Mario69- why not another autopsy, if that is what the family wants. That may give them comfort & peace knowing exactly what happened, since there have been so many military cover ups.

I believe it was a heart attack but just to put the matter to rest when the Captians body is returned I'd have a medical professional or even furneral director check the body over .... just so I'd never wonder.

R.I.P.

Mario, Perhaps not, but for my own peace of mind I would have it done. If for nothing more than to be able to document that information for my children. That there could be some family history of early heart problems. Who is to say that it doesn't run in his family.

My heart goes out to the family and friends of this soldier. I pray they find the strength to see their way through the painful days ahead.

Mario is probably right, but then again, so is everyone else. A 2nd autopsy should be done if it will help the family deal with Capt. Clark's death and find some measure of peace.

But MarilynMD, if this was "recorded" on Skype, I don't think there would be much chance for a cover up. If he had been shot from anywhere nearby, his wife should have heard the gunshot. I think the "bullet hole" in the closet door, if in fact that's what it is, was probably there beforehand and she only noticed it after he fell forward.

In any event, very tragic -- especially the 2 hours it took to get in touch with someone who could check on him. That must've been absolutely horrendous and excruciating for his family and friends.

I suppose the Captain's estate owns the body, so they can do what seems right with it, ghoulish, tasteful, necessary or not.

Certainly the corpse has no rights.

Whatever has this to do with you, Ray? Captain Clark is not a member of your family.

If you really thought that you would not be spouting in big letters your opinions about the Government. A real Conspiracy Theorist would think if the Government saw your post they would find and eliminate you.

If this was recorded on Skype, I don't think there's much of a chance for a cover up. Unless you think Capt. Clark was already dead and a look-alike was Skyping with his wife then faked a heart attack to throw everyone off the scent???

You must be one of those people who think the Moon Landing was staged.

Very Possible the man died of a Massive Heart Attack. As for the bullet hole in the closet door. It is Afghanistan

Doubt there is any connection. Spontaneous bullet holes is common with coronary events.

nibor one of these days you should go ouit and have a look at some of the buildings in Afghanistan Iran iraq other places war is apparent. Bullet holes in uncommon places are not that uncommon but it doesnt mean someone was shot there.

if its even a bullet hole. A hole seen through a computer video camera a few thousand miles away can appear to be what ever you want it to be. Why would the Government go through such efforts to cover up a nurses death by bullet in a war torn country where he is constantly in harms way. What silly dribble.

Ring Master

nibor one of these days you should go ouit and have a look at some of the buildings in Afghanistan Iran iraq

We can just rely on your first hand experience in such matters.

The soldier was in his own room. My husband has deployed 4 times and 2 of the times he was able to get internet in his room. There are such things, it just depends on where you are stationed and how expensive it it.

Most likely, he was in his own barracks room, on his own laptop. If he didn't have roommates, or if his roommates were out on a mission, this could easily happen.

It took 2 hours for them to get into contact with someone, which is not unheard of for the military. My husband's mother passed away recently, and in order to get that information to him, I had to call the red cross, who then made me give them the number for the place where she had been, they had to call them for confirmation of the death, then call me back, give me a number where I could call the quarterdeck at his station, who then had to call a number at the red cross with the information I had given him, and then they got ahold of my husband. Unless they have a sat telephone, most military members overseas don't have a cell phone on them. She probably had to go through channels to get ahold of someone who could reach her husband. She probably didn't have the number for his military base, which isn't unheard of either.

It isn't BS during full on wartime it could take days to get through chain of command. The military has specific rules and policies for many different reasons.

It isn't BS during full on wartime it could take days to get through chain of command.

Good incentive not to get wounded.

Says he or she who thinks the military automatically drops everything and goes running to the aid of a dead man because his wife who is half way around the world just calls the military saying her husband was shot while talking to her on skype. Yeah they get those calls everyday and immediate procedure is going on its way. Lol You make me giggle.

Eagle, if you've never had to get ahold of someone in a combat area, then you have no idea. I had to try to contact my son when I found out that his wife was screwing around on him. Because it was not considered a RedCross Emergency I went through all kinds of BS to get in touch with him. Took me a couple of days and even then I could only get a message for him to call me back when he could. While I can imagine that those two hours felt like years to this mans family, I'm not surprised.

Ring Master

Says he or she who thinks the military automatically drops everything and goes running to the aid of a dead man

...and the best way to know it is a dead man is to wait a few hours before checking. Is this some more of your vast personal experience?

Jim I'm sorry for your loss. be happy it didn't work nursing homes are full of people that "Survived" heart attacks

If the man was done with his shift and since he has the skype set up in his room, what would the reason be to go bother him? Hello??? Man tells fellow soldiers "I'm heading back to my chu to skype with my wife" You don't go knocking on knocking his door!!! Also, it is NOT that easy to get in contact with people over there. I should know my husband has been there 3 times and is heading over soon for a fourth, I was lucky if I got to hear/see him once a week. There is a ton of protocol, the military has rules you can't just jump to the head of the line, that's how things get screwed up. I feel bad for the family, but I also know that you are not meant to make a statement to the press- we as spouses are taught this. They should of kept quiet until they got all the facts and his body back. Now they are going to make themselves look bad. You must follow protcol!!!

George, unless the Military programmed his computer to ZAP him while he was skyping w/his wife I don't believe any of your conspiracy theory speculations ring true. But I do recommend that an independent autopsy should be done on him. Just for the familys' own peace of mind.