In the summer of 1984, I was sent up into Lebanon on army reserve duty for a month. The Israel Lebanon war was just entering its third year, and there was still plenty of fighting going on.
I was sent up as a communication equipment technician for a month of reserve duty in A-Nabatiya, a town somewhere in the center of south Lebanon. The army base was a multi-story old tobacco factory at the edge of town, and it served as offices, barracks, and a supply center for our forces in that region.
One evening, I walked out of the electronics lab where I repaired damaged equipment, and I see a room at the end of the hall with a 16mm movie projector running. As I stepped in to check it out, I immediately recognized the sights and sounds of the classic Blues Brothers movie. When the reel ended, a few more soldiers came in to relax and watch the movie, and someone called out "does anyone here know how to operate the projector?". Trying to be a good guy, I foolishly volunteered, rewound the film, and started showing the first reel, and was about to leave, but a couple of the guys begged me to stay and keep it going, the movie was always good fun and a nice escape from the reality all around us in the midst of the war in Lebanon...
...and so it went - every time a reel ended, I was asked to stick around to rewind and keep the movie going. This went on for about 16 hours until around noon of the next day, when I finally said I really had to get back to work, or lunch... or anything else!
I had scenes from the Blues Brothers playing in my head and filling my dreams for months after I got home from Lebanon...
