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ÒComing HomeÓ, 72x80, oil on canvas
Information
on the Models, Including Biographical Details of a Representative Few
Information on the ArtistÕs Personal
Connections to the Military
Coming Home was on display for the summer at the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY. There was a reception at the museum July 30th from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. Several of the models for the painting were there, as well as officials from the National Guard, members of the Museum staff, guests and casual visitors.
The event was covered before it occurred in Terry BrownÕs weekly military events column in the Times Union. You can read the article here.
The event was covered the day after it occurred in the leading front page article of the local Saratogian newspaper. You can read the article online here.
Paul Post, who wrote the above article in the Saratogian, has recently completed a book Soldiers of Saratoga County: From Concord to Kabul. This fascinating book is a compilation of stories about local veterans in Saratoga, dating back to the French and Indian wars and right up to the present. It shows the depth and richness of local military experience. The Saratogian detailed the publication in an article which you can read here.
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Fanning, State Public Affairs Officer for the New York National Guard, wrote an article about this painting for the National Guard news. Many of the models are from the National Guard. Paul also attended the reception at the Military Museum. You can read the article he wrote here.
Coming Home was on display at the Lincoln Public Library in Lincoln, MA for the month of June. LincolnÕs weekly town newspaper, the Lincoln Journal, published a front page article on the show in their June 10 issue, which can be read on the web here.
Painting
This painting depicts the sort of homecoming celebration that one would wish that all soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines would have. The small town has turned out with balloons, confetti and cheers, and as the servicepeople circle the town green, their faces show their happiness with being home and their emotional response to their service being duly celebrated.
Information
on the Models, Including Biographical Details of a Representative Few
The models for this painting are soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who were serving in New York late in 2008, most at either the Stratton Air National Guard Base in Scotia, the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Glenville, or with Fox Company Marines in Albany. These models represent a cross-section of length of service, rank, race, gender, and service branches. Following is a brief outline of a representative few of the modelsÕ military backgrounds, including one serviceperson from each branch represented, and the soldier wearing the green beret.
1) First Sergeant Ed Ackley joined the Marine Corps in 1994. He served with the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, and then with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines (3/4) in several overseas posts including Tirana, Albania in Operation Resolute Response and Operation Silver Knight, earning Marine of the Year for his actions in 1998 during the Kosovo crisis. He returned home briefly in 2001 to help his hometown Fire Department with identifying human remains at the 9/11 World Trade Center site. Subsequently, 3/4 deployed to the Middle East with Operation Enduring Freedom Kuwait, and with Operation Iraqi Freedom. He transferred to the 7th Marines Regiment Operation Section in 2004, to train and certify marines and sailors for deployment in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Ed served with 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines, Fox Company in Albany, NY as Inspector-Instructor for three years, until May of 2010 when he accepted orders to the 3rd Amphibious Assault Battalion at Camp Pendleton, CA where he currently serves as Bravo Company First Sergeant. Awards include the Combat Action Ribbon, the Iraqi Freedom Medal and the Combat ÒVÓ Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.
2) LS1 James Savaria enlisted in the Navy fifteen years ago. Various duty assignments he has had include two years as Damage Controlman on the USS Wasp (LHD 1). The USS Wasp was stationed two miles off the coast of Somalia during Operation Restore Hope in 1993, carrying Marines and their equipment. Jim served for five years on the submarine USS Annapolis (SSN 760), as Galley Watch Captain (cook). During this time, the USS Annapolis was stationed for 6 months in the Middle East as a guard ship carrying weapons at the ready, when international weapons inspectors were investigating in Iraq. Jim subsequently served for two years as Galley Watch Captain on the submarine USS Dallas (SSN 700), transporting Navy Seals to their assignments.
Jim currently serves as Navy Funeral Honors Coordinator in Glenville, NY. The metal badge above the ribbons on his uniform is the ÒSilver DolphinÓ representing submarine service. His medals and awards include the Navy Commendation Medal, the Navy Achievement Medal, and the Joint Meritorious Unit Award.
3) Lieutenant Colonel Robert Mitchell entered the Army in 1995 as a Second Lieutenant through ROTC, SUNY-Binghamton. He graduated from Explosive Ordnance Basic School in 2000 and served as Company Commander for the 744th Ordnance Company, where he participated in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. In the Afghanistan Theater of Operations, the 744th was under the command and control of the 10th Mountain Division, represented by RobÕs right shoulder patch with the two crossed swords. The right shoulder sleeve insignia (often called the Òcombat patchÓ) is worn for the unit that gives the soldierÕs orders during wartime service.
Subsequently, Rob was the Director of Training at the Naval Explosive Ordnance School in Eglin Air Force Base, FL. He then transferred to the New York Army National Guard, serving as Executive Officer of the 501st Ordnance Battalion for four years. In December of 2009 Rob took command of the unit, which is expected to deploy to Iraq in late 2010. Above RobÕs left breast pocket is the badge for Master Explosive Ordnance Disposal, which is awarded on completion of basic EOD training plus 7-15 years of service in a senior supervisory position. RobÕs awards and medals include the Bronze Star medal, the Meritorious Service Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal.
4) Lieutenant Colonel Kimberly Terpening joined the Air National Guard in 1985. She served with the New York Air National Guard, 109th Airlift Wing, and the 139th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron until 2009. The 109th is the only USAF unit to fly ski-equipped C-130Õs, which are used in support of scientific research expeditions in the Greenland ice cap and in Antarctica. The unit also provides combat medical evacuations, and evacuations from emergencies in worldwide locations. Kim is a Flight Nurse Evaluator with more than 1500 flight hours logged in C-130, LC-130, C-141, KC-135 and C-9 aircraft. Her various positions have included Assistant Chief of Aircrew Training, Squadron Commander and Public Affairs Officer.
Currently, Kim serves at the headquarters of the Air National Guard at Andrews Air Force Base, MD. She is the Chief of Aeromedical Evacuation Plans, Operations and Nursing Services and the Command Nurse of the Air National Guard. Her awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal and the AF Outstanding Unit Award. The badge below her right breast pocket is the Air Mobility Command (AMC) patch. The AMC is a Major Command unit of the USAF, an umbrella unit whose purpose is to provide global air mobility, and whose members include certain Air National Guard units, Air Force Reserve and other units.
5) Captain Russell Howe served in the 1st Special Forces Group (signified by the green beret) located in Fort Lewis, WA from 1993-95. Russ stayed in the Army as a National Guardsman and is now a Lieutenant Colonel, currently the G5 Plans Officer with the 42nd Infantry Division, headquartered in Troy, NY. He was deployed in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 with the 82nd Airborne Division. Awards include the Meritorious Service Medal w/2 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Ranger Tab, the Special Forces Tab, and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
Information on the ArtistÕs Personal Connections to the Military
(PLEASE NOTE: the following people are NOT in the painting)
ItÕs easier to paint things that feel familiar. Luckily for this painting, although no one in my immediate family served in the military, various of my relatives and ancestors were servicepeople and thus I have been around military stories and people all of my life. I would like to commemorate these people by including brief mention of their careers.
On my fatherÕs side, my grandfather Brigadier General Richard Lee Jewett served in the US Army Corps of Engineers for thirty years, after graduating from West Point in 1931 (MS, University of Iowa). Among various posts, he taught mathematics at West Point, and had command of the US Army Europe Engineer School at Murnau, Germany. During World War II he was the Executive Officer of the 364th Engineer General Service Regiment working on the roads behind the First US Army as it swept across France, Belgium and Germany. Near the end of his career, he served as Assistant Commandant, US Army Engineer School; and later as Commanding General, US Army Engineer Center, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.[1]
Richard LeeÕs brother Lieutenant Charles (ÒChuckÓ) Jewett served in the US Army Air Corps, the precursor to the US Air Force (which was formed as a separate branch in 1947). Chuck was killed in 1944 in Beatrice, NE, in a training accident. More pilots died in training accidents in Nebraska prior to service in WWII, than died in combat. Chuck was flying a P-47D fighter plane, simulating a head-on strafing run attack on a B-17 bomber. He broke out of formation, reporting engine trouble, but the exercise continued and during the attack he pulled up too late and sliced the wing off the B-17, killing himself and seven members of the B-17 crew.
Richard LeeÕs father (my great grandfather) Colonel Frank Fanning Jewett, served for thirty five years in the US Army. Among various posts, in 1911-12 he served as inspector-instructor of the Arizona National Guard in Tucson; near the end of WWI, on May 1st, 1918, he sailed to France to serve with the 328th infantry American Expeditionary Forces; and after the war, worked with the American Graves Registration Service in Antwerp, Belgium, which was responsible for creating consolidated gravesites for US servicepeople in northern France.
Frank FanningÕs father (my great great grandfather), Captain Richard Henry Lee Jewett served during the Civil War in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, Colored; a unit which is commemorated in Augustus Saint-GaudensÕ Robert Gould Shaw Memorial on the Boston Commons, and also was depicted in the movie ÒGloryÓ. Richard Henry LeeÕs older brother Charles served as a Lieutenant in the same regiment; and his younger brother John Hampden served as a Corporal in the Tenth WI Infantry, and was killed in the battle of Chickamauga.
My first cousin TSgt Michael Petry (son of my fatherÕs elder sister) served for 21 years in the US Air Force. For 14 years he was a mechanic for F-111Õs and F-16Õs, stationed in various places including England, Turkey, Germany and Korea. He was cross-trained into intelligence in 1993 and did Targets and Operational Intelligence at Offit Air Force Base, NE, retiring in 2000.
My uncle, First Lieutenant John DeYoung (my fatherÕs younger sisterÕs husband), was commissioned as a Field Artillery Officer out of Princeton University ROTC in 1967. After a delay in service to complete graduate school, he reported for active duty at Fort Sill, OK, where he completed training and served as the Senior Tactical Officer and Assistant Executive Officer, A Battery, Artillery Combat Leader Battalion. From June 1970 to May 1971, he served as the G-3 Admin. Officer, HQ, I Field Force Vietnam (IFFV later re-formed as the Second Regional Assistance Command) in Nha Trang.
On my motherÕs side, my grandmotherÕs brother Sergeant Jose P. deVaron graduated from Harvard Law School in 1941 and attempted to enlist as an officer in the Navy; however, his leg had been badly injured in a ski accident and the examining medical officer refused to approve his commission. He joined the US ArmyÕs Yankee Division of the 104th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Army, and was soon enrolled as a Corporal in the School for Overseas Administration at Harvard, a special school set up to train soldiers to temporarily run European towns that had been ruined by the war, where he studied Russian six hours a day. However the Army needed infantry, and he was shipped out to France several weeks after D-day, crossing Europe with the 3rd Army under General Patton, and finally engaging the enemy at the Battle of the Bulge. During that time he was responsible for publishing a daily newspaper for the 104th, filled with morale-building positive articles and funny cartoons. After the war he used his Russian to interpret during the transfer of German prisoners to the Russians in Czechoslovakia.
Also on my motherÕs side, my grandfatherÕs brother Captain Samuel O. Davis served as a fighter pilot in WWII in the US Army Air Corps. He was a training instructor for pilots in the Eighth Air Force who were stationed in England, and later served as Flight Commander with the 399th Bombardment Squadron, 88th Bombardment Group (Heavy) which was responsible for blanket bombing of European target cities. He went on to a civilian career with American Airlines in research and development, working with the group that developed the first black boxes to record details prior to an airplane crash.
I would like to acknowledge the invaluable help in this project of Lieutenant Colonel James Pabis, who arranged the connections to find the models; answered many questions about military structure, uniforms and badges; and facilitated a workspace for creating a painting of this size. Additionally, JimÕs positive attitude towards the military life and the servicepeople who lead it, after his 19 years of service in the National Guard, was helpful inspiration for creating a painting that is in celebration of the men and women of the United States military.