This morning’s deadly clash between the Lebanese army and the IDF isn’t the first time that fatalities on a contested border have resulted from attempts to deal with an inconveniently located tree.
On the 18th of August, 1976 Captain Arthur Bonifas and 1st Lieutenant Mark Barret, two United States Army officers who had been trying to cut down a tree in the Joint Security Area on the border between the two Koreas, were hacked to death by North Korean soldiers.
Actually, a slight correction/clarification. Capt. Bonifas and Lt. Barret were not trying to cut down a tree, they were the officers supervising a guard detail of 9 US and ROK enlisted men, who were guarding 4 South Korean civilians hired to trim some of the lower branches, obscuring visibility between two UNC checkpoints.
You’ve mercilessly outwonked me, Bill :=))