Memorial Day- Original

18 x 24 x .75 Acrylic on stretched canvas

As a combat veteran, days such as Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Patriot Day mean a great deal to me. For me, it is not flag waving and chants of USA, though. They are somber days, days of remembrance for the people who have died in service or risked death in service to us. These are our sons and daughters, our siblings, our brothers and sisters. They loved. They had families, pets. They had laughs that stick with their families like shadows. They are lost stars in somebody's universe. And they deserve to be remembered.

I painted this piece over Memorial Day weekend of 2023. One of the things that struck me after I left the Defense Department and came home was all the people who I had known in my youth who suddenly, for the first time in my presence, talked about being in Vietnam. People who had just been neighbors, teachers, photographers.... it turned out they all had past lives that I knew nothing about. And when I came home, it all came out. I guess they hadn't had anyone to talk to about it before.

And so I made this painting for them. A squad of soldiers is pinned down. One is dying. Medivac is on the way. The jungle night is being lit by artillery fire and airstrikes. And they hold out hope. Maybe they will make it out, maybe they won't. I don't deal in happy endings. But they fight and they hope. That I celebrate.