After a recent conversation with an artist friend about the importance of artists receiving acclaim for their works, I wondered which reception has been the most important to me. Purchase awards and ceremonies with speeches and ribbons flashed through my memory all with pleasant thoughts attached.
Each honor, for the moment, was important, but in comparing their impacts on my life, the most meaningful had to be a letter and an invitation to be among those welcoming the soldiers who were returning from serving in the First Gulf War. “Operation Troop Salute” was held on Louisville’s Belvedere and my art booth featured the soldier I had sculpted titled, “Yo! Patriot!”
I had been inspired to sculpt the piece while watching TV coverage of the War. The sihouette a young man digging a hole in the sand caught my eye. Using his entrenching tool, he was throwing sand over his shoulder with a fury that told without words the immediate necessity of his actions. I wondered what that soldier would be thinking if a Patriot Missle lifted up above his head and headeded toward an unseen target.
I kept remembering that young man and while visiting my son, stationed with his family in Texas, I was fortunate in having a soldier pose for me in a “full canteen salute” to a Patriot Missle. Using my son’s gear for a model, I returned to my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Each time I drove up the Lexington Road hill near Grinstead Drive, the yellow ribbons tied to trees on either side of the Drive , were both a comfort and torment.
With much encouragement from members of the United States Army “Yo! Patriot!” was at last completed.
Standing in my booth on the Salute weekend I was amazed at the thanks I received from the young men and their families who were just returning home. Some held babies born while they were away at war. I had come to thank them for serving and they didn’t want to hear my words. All they wanted to do was make sure they told me thanks for the soldier I had sculpted.
In a letter I received from General Norman Schwarzkopf, Retired, he wrote, “These fine Americans went to the Middle East and endured the uncertainty of war and separation from their loved ones. But they understood and accepted their mission when their country called on them to defend its national interests. Let me assure you that they answered that call magnificently. Again, thank you for demonstrating your support for our troops in the Middle East. They deserved the thanks of a grateful nation. God bless you.”
“Yo! Patriot!” is on display in the Patton Museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky. I treasure the General’s letter and each time I read it I recall the faces of those young men who came home and walked into my heart and memory on a hot summer weekend in Kentucky.