July 4, 1986..Hadleigh, UK... At the airbase I was stationed in, the annual Independence Day festivities were cancelled by the British government as a response to the American bombing of Libya earlier that year. Most of my fellow airmen decided to celebrate at assorted homes and I invited about 6 of my closest friends to a day of steak grilling, and drinking...well maybe drinking and steak grilling..it's kind of fuzzy... After a few hours of drinking, my friends and I decided that if the Brits wouldn't let us celebrate, we were going to INVADE Hadleigh and raise the Stars and Stripes over some important structure..so we got into our combat fatigues (every Airman was required to carry full military kits in our cars), put on our WW2 style steel pot helmets (standard issues in USAFE for aircraft maintenance units) got my American flag (I had a small one that I flew in the back garden during US holidays ) and went around looking for a suitable building with a flagpole (this was around 11 PM)..we found a WW2 pillbox COMPLETELY undefended!! and it had a flagpole on top..a perfect 'Sands of Iwo Jima' moment... Well armed with many bottles of beer, we assailed the British strong-point with only minor casualties (in our condition, it was damn hard to climb on the wet, slick concrete so most of us fell two or 3 times) and raised Old Glory over the British position..which we held for almost 2 hours until detected by British paramilitary forces (the Royal Suffolk Constabulary). We were confronted by heavily armed forces (we didn't have anything to withstand the dreaded nightsticks), we quickly withdrew, back to our safe house whereupon we continued drinking (and ignoring our wives's questions as to what we had done to get muddy, drunk, scratched and bleeding) The party ended at dawn on the 5th of July, and most of us awoke to my trashed apartment with the hangover to end all hangovers...at least we had 2 more days to recover before being back on duty... I did a lot of cleaning..even renting a carpet cleaner Saturday afternoon to recover what remained of our flat's carpet...And returned to the site of the "battle" only to find that my American flag had been taken ...spoils of war I guess...