Mariners fan pays tribute to US service members with 13 American flags at T-Mobile Park

One man had the idea to honor the 13 US service members killed in a suicide bombing at the Kabul Airport in Afghanistan last week. He decided the most appropriate venue would be T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners.

For the September 1 game against the division rival Houston Astros, Brett Smith bought 13 tickets, plus one for himself, and draped 13 flags in centerfield in honor the 13 soldiers.

Smith told The Post Millennial, "I was inspired after seeing someone else do this in Atlanta at a Braves game and thought why not keep their spirit alive here cross country at a Mariners game. I wanted to show the service men and women here in the northwest we care about them."

Smith said that it "wasn't easy" pulling it off. The stadium recently changed their bag policy to only allow see-through bags and he had brought the flags in a paper bag which according to Smith, a security guard would not permit. The bag was confiscated and now Smith was carrying 13 large American flags through the stadium. A supervisor suggested buying a bag at the team store where an employee allegedly told him that he could not have a plastic bag, because there is a "national bag shortage."

Smith left the store for the stadium's new Triton Deck for a beer. Two stadium ambassadors in yellow allegedly asked him "What are you doing with those flags?" He explained the situation and one of the ambassadors went to the same team shop and got a clear plastic bag for Smith.

During the game, Smith began to drape the flags over each paid seat in center field. The display took up the entire row 7 of section 191. Smith said that he wanted to make sure they were displayed for the 7th inning stretch. "Oddly enough, the only run scored in the game happened when we started to lay the flags out."

Smith said that once he started laying out the flags, he was once again greeted by security and a security supervisor. He was concerned he "was going to get shut down" when they asked "Who did this?"

He explained his project to the security supervisor who shook his hand and according to Smith said, "We wouldn't normally permit this but I'm a veteran of 20 years in the Navy. Not only can you stay, you can come back anytime."

According to Smith, seven "kind strangers" from West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri helped him maintain the flags "as it gets pretty windy in center field."

"We were greeted and thanked by many. One man came up and properly saluted each and every one of them. Many took pictures with us and shook hands."

"Soon thereafter, three active-duty Coast Guardsmen helped us finish folding the flags when they saw us doing it ourselves. They said, 'we saw you guys from way down there and thought hey, let's go fold some flags! We're based right here in Seattle.'"

Smith called it "a blessed day." Even better, the Mariners beat the Astros 1-0. However, Smith said that he feels sometimes that "My home, Seattle is enemy territory for us patriots."

He noted that Major League Baseball "proudly displays a co-branded BLM logo in centerfield but, what they don’t realize is that the flag I was displaying is the exact reason they can display propaganda like that. It’s called free speech. Exactly what our service men and women die for."