***BEST OF SHOW AMERICAN LEGION AUXILLARY
2nd Place Military Combat Experience
24 x 28
When I close my eyes
Fire, fire, fire… fire on the flight deck, all hands man your battle stations, this is not a drill… I close my eyes to escape.
Man overboard, man overboard starboard side, all hands report to muster. In Combat Information Center, I took the ship’s bearing, speed, drift, and wind speed and prepared the charts to search in vain for hours looking for our lost shipmate. I was ordered to “stand down.” I close my eyes to escape.
From the vantage point of the “crow’s nest,” I was shocked to see what I thought was a soccer ball rolling across the flight deck below until I saw the headless body of a fellow shipmate that just got decapitated. I close my eyes to escape.
Now as I sit in the waiting room at my local VA hospital for another appointment I’m sure that the doctor will once again tell me that my exposure to a cocktail of chemicals in the Gulf of Oman is unfounded and that my VA claim is once again denied, I close my eyes to escape.
For many of us we had visions of getting back to the real world and of better times beyond the foxholes, sand dunes or war machines. When I close my eyes, I escape in my mind and take myself away from these wartime horrors and to the safety, serenity and seclusion of being alone in the wilderness. I find myself enveloped and embraced by the warmth of the sun. I see the mountains, birds, animals and streams.
Liberty call, discharged and released, I’ll always carry with me these images from my military combat experiences so I created this piece to remind me of this comforting place when I close my eyes.