Flags from Afghanistan fly at UNL

Two U.S. flags that flew in Afghanistan have been donated to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln by alumna Linda Christiansen, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force who works at U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base.

The flags were flown outside of Chase Hall on the UNL East Campus and at the Military and Naval Science building on City Campus. At the latter site, the flag was raised and lowered by formal ceremony on Oct. 21. The flag and certificate are currently being framed and will be displayed in the Air Force entry display case at the Military and Naval Science building.

Christiansen earned a bachelor's degree from the College of Business Administration in 1989 and a juris doctor from the College of Law in 1996. Christiansen was stationed in Afghanistan in 2003 and early 2004.

She spent four months at Bagram Air Force Base, located 27 miles north of Kabul in northeastern Afghanistan. She served as the deputy chief of intelligence for Joint Task Force 180 in support of the 10th Mountain Division. While at Bagram, one of her duties was to work with the Bagram Confinement/Interrogation Facility, coordinating with the American Embassy in Kabul to transfer high-value detainees to Guantanamo Bay. Her work with that facility gave her access to the flags that flew over and in the detention center. Christiansen returned from Afghanistan in spring 2004 to be stationed at Offutt Air Force Base. She brought back flags for co-workers in the Air Force, for family members and for the College of Law.

"I just enjoy the symbolism of the flags flying over and in the detention center for 9 hours, 11 minutes," she said. The flags flew in an area where interrogations were being conducted at a processing and holding facility at Bagram. Interrogations were held with detainees facing a wall lined with U.S. flags, hence, "This flag flew in the face of the enemy," she said. The flags fly for 9 hours and 11 minutes to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, date of the terrorist attacks, and then are changed out for other flags.

CONTACT: Col. Robert Tovado, Chair, Aerospace Studies, (402) 472-2473