By Jennifer Mayer
A BYU flag, flown during the Afghanistan conflict, will fly on Brigham Young University campus during Patriots” Week.
When Camp Williams” Special Forces 19 deployed to Afghanistan last fall, a member of the troop took a BYU flag to fly on the base, said Captain Noel Namauu, BYU assistant professor of military science.
The troop plans to donate the BYU flag to the university during Patriots” Week”s annual Presidential Review at Brigham”s Square Thursday, Nov. 14, at noon, Namauu said.
During the troop”s time in Afghanistan, the flag experienced hostile fire as a plane transported from ship to ship, Namauu said.
“It is nice to donate the flag back to the school so people get to see the connection,” said Christopher Pratt, a former BYU student who served in Afghanistan in Special Forces 19 last year. “So many people see things far away that they become detached from what is really going on. Something like this makes it so things aren”t so far away.”
Pratt was enrolled at BYU until Sept. 11; after which he put his education on hold to serve his country.
Pratt returned from Afghanistan in October after serving for a year.
Pratt is now a sophomore in the process of reregistering to pursue a degree in the fields of political science and philosophy.
The flag will remind students at BYU that people halfway around the world are helping to win the war on terrorism or whatever conflict may arise around the world, Pratt said.
The flag will fly during Patriot”s Week along side with the American flag, Namauu said.
After Patriots” Week the flag be retired to a location on campus to be displayed, Namauu said. Campus officials have not yet determined where it will be housed.
