Fort Worth Soldier Zachary Boyd Battles Taliban In Pink Boxers

I am sure the Fort Worth Star-Telegram covered this story, since it involved a Fort Worth soldier. I no longer get the Star-Telegram so I no longer get to marvel at that paper's odd need to mention the Fort Worth connection, no matter how tenuous, to a celebrity or person in the news. You could be married to someone who once lived in Fort Worth and that would be enough of a connection for the Star-Telegram to need to mention it.

Long ago I webpaged some examples of that paper's goofiness, including funny uses of their patented "Green With Envy" verbiage. As in towns far and wide are green with envy because a soldier from Fort Worth battled the Taliban in Afghanistan out of uniform, clad in pink I Love NY boxer shorts and flip-flops.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates (if I were like the Star-Telegram I would somehow insert that Gates was a neighbor of mine when I lived in Washington) heaped praise on a Fort Worth soldier on Thursday. Earlier this month a picture was snapped of the soldier hurrying to defend his post, wearing pink boxers and flip-flops.

Secretary Gates yesterday said he wants to meet the soldier and shake his hand the next time he visits Afghanistan. Gates said, "Any solider who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip-flops has a special kind of courage. I can only wonder about the impact on the Taliban. Just imagine seeing that a guy in pink boxers and flip-flops has you in his cross-hairs. What an incredible innovation in psychological warfare."

Army Specialist Zachary Boyd, 19, ran out of his sleeping quarters May 11 to help his other platoon members who were under fire from Taliban positions shooting at their base in Kunar Province in eastern Afghanistan. A photographer was on the scene. When the picture showed up on the front page of the New York Times, Zachary told his mom and dad, here in Fort Worth, that he might lose his job if President Obama saw that he was out of uniform.

To which Secretary Gates said, "I can assure you that Specialist Boyd's job is very safe indeed."