"Helo art" heralds journey home for Texas Guard unit - Brief Article

Translog: Journal of Military Transportation Management, Jan-Feb, 2001

The decorative colors ebb and flow across the white plastic sheeting.

Caricatures on the protective plastic follow the twisting shapes of Apache helicopters. Ordinarily, the plastic's purpose is to provide protection from salt air.

Now, it is an art medium.

There are ruby-red lips attached to a face.

There are slogans like "I Miss Texas" and "To: Seth and Sammie, Love Dad."

This is not an art museum--it is the working docks of Rijeka, Croatia, in October as we load the 49th Armored Division, Texas National Guard, for home.

Some 1,200 of the Guardsmen have been in Bosnia for six months. They composed the headquarters element of the Bosnian peacekeeping force--the first time a National Guard division headquarters has run the Army operation.

Now, the Guardsmen are going home, mission completed.

The artistic expressions tell it all. The wonderfully flowing artwork radiates of home and family.

I watched the pilot and father of "Seth and Sammie" at work. Dressed in his flight suit, he was an artist expressing true joy and creativity.

At the rear of the aircraft was an American flag--standing out with sharp waves in an imaginary wind.

The art work was an inspiration for us.

It brightened our days and nights as we loaded the Saudi Hofuf.

It was tough work.

We had to unload a lot of the ship's cargo and shift it to other locations to pack 100,000 square feet of our cargo into the 60,000 square feet of space. We packed tight. The going was slow because the cargo has to fit tightly and get lashed before the next piece goes in.

Normally, we stow on the run and the lashers follow at their pace. We had to move other cargo out of the way to maneuver the tight space. In addition, there was no ventilation, and the ol' lungs started to hurt after a while.

But, when the art work goes by -- our mood is brightened on that dock on the Adriatic Sea so far from home.