One of the University of North Carolina students who protected the American flag from anti-Israel protesters, whom he dubbed an “unwashed Marxist horde,” said they would only get to Old Glory over his dead body.
Dan Stompel, a junior studying political science at UNC, was among the patriotic students who kept the American flag safe after protesters removed it to raise the Palestinian flag on campus.
“I don’t understand how people can act like this,” Stompel told Fox News, recounting how he spent more than an hour keeping the flag away from the mob.
“We’re looking at every direction. If stuff was flying in, we would say, ‘Heads up,’” Stompel recalled of the chaos. “We would cover each other. We would look out for other people… And it did hurt our arms.”
Despite the exhaustion of keeping the flag safe, Stompel said the moment gave him hope as the members of Chapel Hill’s Pi Kappa Phi chapter rushed in to help protect Old Glory.
“It shows that …based on the people there, nice, normal, strong boys protecting America’s flag,” he said. “There’s nothing more patriotic, nothing more genuine, nothing more inspiring than that.
“I was like, ‘I’d die for this flag.’ And everybody was like, ‘Yeah,’” Stompel added. “… They’re going to have to tear me off this flag over my dead body.”
The Palestinian flag was eventually removed, with Old Glory returned to its place and protected by a barricade.
A GoFundMe page was created to celebrate the fraternity for its efforts in keeping the flag safe, which has raised more than $400,000 as of Thursday afternoon.
“Amidst the chaos, the screaming, the antisemitism, the hatred of faith and flag, stood a platoon of American heroes… [who] protected Old Glory from the unwashed Marxist horde,” the GoFundMe page said.