Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus revealed in a recent interview that he may have played a key role in the US military’s capture of Saddam Hussein during Operation Red Dawn.
Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus is best known for catchy hooks, pop-punk anthems, and wisecracks on stage, but his latest revelation adds an unexpected twist to his legacy. In an interview promoting his autobiography Fahrenheit-182: A Memoir, the bassist and vocalist talked about death, his cancer battle, and…his potential involvement in the capture of Saddam Hussein?
Hoppus claimed he may have been directly involved in the US military’s successful capture of Saddam Hussein back in 2003. While the military has not officially lauded Hoppus for his alleged contribution, the musician shared a story that places him in a high-level conversation during a performance tour for US troops in the Middle East.
Hoppus says that while on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, he pitched an unusual idea to a fleet admiral over dinner – an idea that, he suggests, may have changed the course of history.
“I did, I saved the world from Saddam Hussein,” he said in an interview with NME. “I was sitting down with the admiral of the fleet after dinner before we went on stage, and I told him, ‘Hey, I have an idea of how we can capture Saddam Hussein’.”
The Blink-182 co-founder says the admiral laughed at him, but he pushed on with his proposal. “I said, ‘I’ve had this idea: you kind of know where’s he’s at, he’s releasing these video tapes to his followers with a flag up behind him where he’d say, ‘Rise up to these American dogs!’ or whatever’,” he recalled.
“I said, ‘If you have an idea of where he might be, why don’t you fly drones or aircraft in grid patterns, blasting as time code as loud as you can above the range of human hearing but within the dynamic range that would get captured on a video cassette. Then when he releases his video cassette, you can take the audio portion and extract the time code and triangulate where he might be’.”
“Then the admiral looks at me like, ‘What the hell?’ Then he says, ‘I’m actually meeting at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff next week and I might bring up your idea’. Then, four months later, they had captured Saddam Hussein, so it must have been me.”
When asked why he hasn’t been honoured with a statue, Hoppus simply replied, “Just knowing that I saved the world is medal enough.”
While the claim may sit somewhere between myth and military folklore, it adds another bizarre and oddly patriotic chapter to Mark Hoppus’ intriguing life story. Whether you believe it or not, it’s safe to say no other pop-punk memoir drops a Saddam Hussein plot twist quite like this.
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