"60" Gunner

Today's drawing--
A "60" gunner walking along on patrol.

Little Treasure, Lost and Found

Here's an old sketch I did while on my first deployment as a combat artist, back in 2006. It's of a young jundi (soldier), one Ali Muhammad Kathair, just before he goes out on patrol in his town of Anah, Iraq:

I'm glad we found it (my wife was organizing her new craft space and found it in some things-- we still have no clue how it got there!). I will submit it to the Combat Art Collection of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, where it belongs.

Sketches like this one are very valuable, I think, because though they may lack refinement or be a bit "off," they are one of a kind records of something the artist saw.

This sketch and the photos I took were used as inspiration and reference for a portrait sketch I did later of the same subject:

Sgt Reckless

This portrait drawing is of the famous Marine horse, "Sgt Reckless" from the Korean War era.
She was a beloved war horse, a pack animal for the 5th Marines who saw action with them in Korea.

Here is the oil portrait of Sgt Reckless, in process-- the underpainting stage now complete.   

Civil Affairs-- Winning the War, One Heart at a Time

Though not normally something associated with fighting and winning a war, Civil Affairs has played an enormous role in the successes we've seen in Iraq, and it carries on today in Afghanistan. Successful Civil Affairs activity is vital to any victory it today's "asymmetric warfare" (winning the proverbial hearts and minds is important, not only  in winning a war but also in winning the peace...).

Here is a drawing I did today, showing a Civil Affairs Marine-- Sergeant Scott Spaulding-- engaging in conversation with a local Afghan farmer in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, summer 2009.

 These Civil Affairs Marines are the unsung heroes, in my (sketch) book...