The Bergdahl Flag
My nephew Brandon sent us a flag from Afghanistan in gratitude for our support. We had sent some care packages and to his FB page I posted a song I had written and tried to sing. I had been inspired by a short Facetime call from Afghanistan while I was visiting his mom my sister Carol. She was fighting cancer. We were at the dinner table when his wife handed me her iPhone and there he was, "Hi Uncle Andy!" There was a plywood wall behind him. It was very early in morning there he gets up an hour early so every morning on Facetime he can make his three year old daughter laugh.
"Hi Brandon." What do you say to man in a war zone? I said he looked great which he did and then asked what it was like there in Afghanistan? He said it's not so bad. Boring mostly. I asked what he was doing there? "Tearing it down Uncle Andy we 're tearing it all down." Before he could expand on this his daughter snatched the phone from me and ran from the table screaming ! Squealing maybe's a better word. I sat there a long time thinking hard on all the things I wish I had said to him. What I should have said to him. Not too long later his daughter came running back into the room with the phone and I thought I might get my chance but the phone was delivered to his mom. My sister pulls off her glasses and looks deep into the screen. No words just a long evaluative look at her beloved son for several seconds and then she lipped I love you and flashed the sign language sign for the same. The phone was delivered back to his wife and I was lost in the moment. In awe of her and him and their bravery and love and all that is great with America. At that moment I was so proud of my America I wanted to sing it out loud I wanted to sing about my Country I was American proud.
First time in a long while. So I wrote it down. One morning I heard excerpts from President Obama's commencement speech at the Naval Academy, the most demotivational speech I'd ever heard. I wondered how our warriors in the field would feel hearing this nonsense from their commander and chief. I felt so strongly about it that I decided to at least do something for the one person I actually knew in a war zone so I went down by the River sang it and embarrassingly posted it to his FB. He said he loved it. If it was up to him he'd give it a Grammy. Said he showed it to everybody on base and that it had made his day. Months later he texted me he was sending us something in the mail and to look for it in the next few weeks.
Recently at his mothers funeral we where finally able to sit and talk and he asked if I knew the story of the flag they had sent me. I told the truth that I knew nothing. He got very excited and said that is a very special mission flag .
I again asked him what he did there and he said it wasn't an official position but he was a mission facilitator and when teams where coming in and out he was responsible for everything from clearing the runway to getting them everything they needed to clear them for departure. He said one night was peculiar and unique and it was all Special Forces and by the end of the day it was known that the mission he had facilitated was the Bergdahl prisoner exchange.
Being an infamous mission the mission flag was highly desired and many had submitted requests for it. Brandon said his Major settled all argument by saying send it to Brandon's Uncle. Said I may understand the significance of the mission. Said he really liked the song. Everybody liked it. It was from home.
So humbled so grateful so honored.
