So… it all began as we talked about an  “Artist Kit”  we had given to our artist grand-daughter,  Lian,  for Christmas… somehow I got into a story about how I was able to get a  passing grade  of “C” in Latin by  sketching Roman Soldiers  in my Latin notebook that contained my  non-passing  academic work….  🙂

The family started  encouraging me  over Christmas to try it again… do some sketching… perhaps trying to find something for philip to stay busy with,  in order to keep him out of trouble….  🙂

That led to my first attempt…  Nate all dressed up and looking cool in his new leather jacket and sunglasses…  I am calling this one:    “COOL HAND NATE”

Of course… I had to try my hand at one of those Roman guys which kicked off this whole new hobby thing of sketching…  🙂

But… my real passion is to sketch  U.S. Soldiers… had a couple very emotional experiences in December having to do with my responses to several different areas… especially about WWII… and the difference in all the wars since then… also my brother Marc’s helicopter years in Vietnam… part of the reason I related so emotionally with the movie  “We Were Soldiers”  …  every time  “Snake”  flew back to the battle zone… I had a picture of what my brother was doing regularly for 2 years in Vietnam.  Like I said… lots of emotions… I cried  a lot  during December, 2017…. and I remain thankful that the Lord kept  Marc  (and Snake)  safe thru all the horror…

This one above is a  memorial  for Ellen’s father who landed at Utah Beach with Patton’s 3rd Army, 4th Armored Division as a scout… (forward observers had a 200% casualty rate)… her dad went thru the rest of it with Patton… some of the most ferocious fighting in Europe…. from the beach right up thru the liberation of some of the concentration camps… only had a scratch… in all that time.

God has such a marvelous purpose for our lives… some of us are taken early… some given more years… and He doesn’t always explain Himself….  Patton was taken  the moment it all ended…. his purpose for being here was completed… Thomas McCloy was given enough extra years to produce 4 wonderful children… one of those was God’s very special gift to me… Ellen.  Then the Lord took her dad at only 43 years… He had completed His purpose for Tom McCloy… I am looking forward to finally meeting her Dad when the Lord has finished with what He has for philip here… but…  not rushing that day….  🙂

This one continues my hope to honor not just Tom McCloy and Marc Wolff… but all the veterans and their comrades who lost their lives…. in all the wars… regardless of the whys of their being sent to fight… sadly war changed during Korea, MacArthur was fired and war was politicized… we no longer fought wars to win them… which is why I loved this fox-hole sketch as the artist shared the fox-hole with his company commander… and called it  “A War to be Won”…. it was the eyes that grabbed me… and the bullet hole in the helmet.