Diary Entry - 02/17/1988
Key Facts
President and Mrs. Reagan travel to Washington, DC on Air Force One.
Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins, an American officer serving with a United Nations truce monitoring group, is kidnapped in southern Lebanon.
And so we did. There was one hitch—our helicopter had to land at Santa Barbara airport & motor to Pt. Mugu. Winds at the Point were gusting up to 70 miles per hour—more than a helicopter could handle. But A.F.1 got off alright & we reached the W.H. just 45 min. later than scheduled.
Mermie was here so it was dinner & an early night.
We did get bad news—Lt. Col. Higgens a U.S. member of the U.N. force in Lebanon has been kidnaped. It occurred in the vicinity of a Palestinian refugee camp. The Amal militia has surrounded that camp—beyond that we have no info.
