Did Anyone Else see?

During the Presidents first speech at the D-Day memorial, there were some uniformed men standing behind him, holding their guns and flags. During his speech, their were numerous times when Secret Service men were walking fast pace back and forth in the background. At one point, a Secret Service man walks up behind a man in the white uniform holding the flag, and as he walks up behind him, the man's legs buckle, and he leans against the man to his left, and then he seems to fall back, and the Secret Service man pull him off to the side. Did Anyone see this? If so, what happened?

Originally posted by Chris0530
During the Presidents first speech at the D-Day memorial, there were some uniformed men standing behind him, holding their guns and flags. During his speech, their were numerous times when Secret Service men were walking fast pace back and forth in the background. At one point, a Secret Service man walks up behind a man in the white uniform holding the flag, and as he walks up behind him, the man's legs buckle, and he leans against the man to his left, and then he seems to fall back, and the Secret Service man pull him off to the side. Did Anyone see this? If so, what happened?

I watched a portion of the ceremony and I definitely saw the secret service guys everywhere. Are you having fun with the board here or do you see this? Got a reel of the speech. Surely there's a tape of the ceremony somewhere. Which coverage were you watching when you saw this? I was watching CSPAN.

I was watching MSNBC, early in the morning. It was a man in a White Uniform, holding 1 of the flags. I watched it Live. Yes, I really did see this.

Originally posted by Chris0530
I was watching MSNBC, early in the morning. It was a man in a White Uniform, holding 1 of the flags. I watched it Live. Yes, I really did see this.

Could you tell from the uniform whether it was an American or French soldier? Which flag was he holding? You say he fell back against the guy...did the camera stay on him? Did they switch him out with another soldier or did he straighten back up. Holy crap!!!!

This is really interesting guys. I hope we can find footage of this. I would like to see this for myself.

It was a man in a white uniform, cannot tell what flag he was holding, or if he was french or american. A secret service guy walked up behind him, and then the guys legs buckled, the guys left leg was leaning against the soldier to his left, then all the sudden the guy fell back, the secret service guys grabbed him under the arms, and pulled him off, the camera moved away and didn't follow them. I could see it plain and clear, I can't believe nobody else has seen it, I'm going to look for footage.

They didn't switch him out with another soldier at first, the remaining soldiers just closed the gap.

Originally posted by Chris0530
It was a man in a white uniform, cannot tell what flag he was holding, or if he was french or american. A secret service guy walked up behind him, and then the guys legs buckled, the guys left leg was leaning against the soldier to his left, then all the sudden the guy fell back, the secret service guys grabbed him under the arms, and pulled him off, the camera moved away and didn't follow them. I could see it plain and clear, I can't believe nobody else has seen it, I'm going to look for footage.

I will say one thing...years ago I was the drum major in high school band. We had to be careful when having people stand at attention in the heat because when you lock your knees it cuts off blood flow and can cause you to faint. We had it happen a couple of times. I can see how a flag bearer being intense in the situation might stand too straight and cause that to happen...particularly if they save him waver and lean on the guy beside him. I suppose that would be a convenient explanation but it could be true.

Yeah, but if I'm understanding Chris right, what he saw was the secret service guy come up behind the guy BEFORE he buckled. This would mean that some one had detected he was about to go down, OR the secret service guy made him go down.

Am I interpreting you right, Chris?

Yes, a Secret Service man walked up next to him before he buckled, like he knew he was going to. What's odd, is that I'm trying to search for a video of the Presidents full speech, and I can't find one. Not on CNN's website or anything. Only one I found, was one on CBS News website, and it's not the full speech, it only shows part of the presidents speech, but if you look at the part it does show, you can see the solder in white before he buckles. Here's the link...

www.cbsnews.com...
(Click "Bush Commemorates D-Day" Video, The Soldier is in the back on the left side, 4th down from the right.. this is video before the incident)

If ANYONE can find the full video of the live coverage, We would appreciate it. Anyone tried Kazaa?

Maybe the person was shot or something?

I, too, saw the original. I thought the guy passed out due to the heat. Here is a link to the video from C-span. The guy falls at the 20 minute mark. I think the person that catches him new he wasn't doing well. The soldier does seem to walk away with the assistance of the guy who caught him.

Link (the video is the second one on the list):

www.c-span.org...

Losonczy, DownValley,

I agree with you both. These people probably had been practicing for this days before. They woke up super early, probably practiced a couple more times. They have been on their feet for 4-5 hours already, and now are expected to stand straight and rigid for the entire ceremony with all the guest speakers. It would take a toll. The secret service man probably noticed that the man was wobbling and wanted to see if he was going to be ok.

TC

I have seen he effect of locking knee's and fainting, before they faint, they start to sway, then drop like a ton a bricks, the person behind him may have seen they swaying and wanted to avoid an incident by having the guy unlock his knee's.

[edit on 16-6-2004 by mrmonsoon]