Saturday, October 20, 2007

CAPTURE THE FLAG!   [W. Thomas Smith Jr.]

I snatched a Hezbollah flag — the yellow banner with the green fist and rifle — from one of the enemy's strongholds in Lebanon recently. And when I say stronghold, I literally mean a strong, heavily defended battle position where the Lebanese Army and police dare not enter, and I had to enter covertly.

Kathryn knows about it. I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm nuts. I'm also pretty sure she might be right. But I did it for two reasons:

First, in my often flawed logic I figured that if the terrorists caught me taking the flag, they would — as expressed by a former Christian militiaman who was with me at the time — “cut my head” (meaning “cut my head off”). But the way I saw it, they would “cut my American head” if they caught me flag or no flag anyway.

Second, I hate those guys. Hezbollah, you'll remember, murdered 241 of my brothers when they blew up the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 when I was just a wee-rifleman in the Corps. The enemy stronghold where I snatched the flag was not far from the site of the bombing.

Of course, because there were others involved with me in the flag capture who are still in Lebanon, I cannot — for the sake of their own security — detail the particulars of our little mission.

So what am I going to do with the flag? I haven't decided.

I actually captured two flags: a big one and a little one.

I might keep the little one — or give it to Kathryn — and give the big one to my Navy midshipman nephew, Michael. That way he and his buddies can hang it upside down (as a trophy of war) somewhere in their dorm.

Semper Fidelis.

Editor’s note: Please see this note.

10/20 07:42 AMShare