LOGISTICAL SUPPORT AREA ANACONDA, Balad, Iraq -- Spc. Argenis Lugo
said he grew up in the New York's Bronx borough with a passion for graffiti. He
specializes in names and figures, but stays away from faces. He says that he wants his art
to tell a story without individual expression.
And Lugo has a story to tell.
On September 11th, 2001, he
was at school when he heard
the tragic news that a plane
hit New York's World Trade
Center. Like the rest of
America, he stopped to look.
But while most of the world
watched on TV, Lugo stood
in the back yard of his own
high school, a first-hand
witness as America, and his
own life, changed forever.
"We heard about it on the
radio, and went outside and
watched the smoke go up,"
said Lugo.
Six years later Lugo is a Soldier deployed with D Company, 2nd Battalion, 159th
Aviation. The battalion is part of Task Force XII, led by U.S. Army Europe's 12th
Combat Aviation Brigade. He still has that passion for graffiti, and people are still
suffering and dying in Iraq, Lugo's current back yard.
SGT BRANDON LITTLE
Spcs. Argenis Lugo and Blake Skinner pose by their recently completed wall
mural at the D Company, 2nd Battalion, 159th Aviation hangar at Logistical
Support Area Anaconda in Balad, Iraq. The two 2-159th Soldiers painted
the mural as a tribute to Soldiers from one of their fellow U.S. Army, Europe
units -- the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division -- who have died fighting in
Iraq.
When the time came for D Company to put a personal touch on their aircraft maintenance
hangar, Lugo and his platoon sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class Billy Maloney, had an idea.
Maloney, a fellow New Yorker, was stationed in Illesheim, Germany, current home of
the 2-159th, when the Towers went down. He watched on television as his friends and
neighbors in New York struggled with tragedy.
"I saw the Towers being built as a kid," he said. "It's still hard for me to believe they're
gone."
Maloney says he saw
painting the hangar here as an
opportunity to do something
he considered special.
Thousands of service
members have given their
lives in the Global War on
Terror, and Maloney says too
many of those Soldiers are
from the 2nd Brigade, 1st
Infantry Division. The
'Dagger Brigade' is based in
the Schweinfurt, Germany,
just 45 minutes from
Illesheim. Since the
beginning of their current
deployment to Iraq, 2nd
Brigade has endured the
deadliest deployment of any
Europe-based U.S. military
brigade in Iraq. As of late September, 59 of their members had died in combat.
"I have several friends there," said Maloney. "I always hold my breath every time I open
the (newspaper), because I'm afraid I might see another name of a Soldier from
Schweinfurt."
"There's a lot of pictures painted on walls here," he said. "But we wanted to remember
9/11 and the Soldiers in Schweinfurt who have lost so many."
"I just like to draw," said Lugo. "I mentioned it to my platoon sergeant because he's
always talking about the 1st Infantry Division and all the guys they've lost in the war."
As a result Lugo and Spc. Blake Skinner, another member of Maloney's platoon, turned
the sergeant's thoughts into a permanent graphic reminder to their fellow Soldiers of why
they serve here.
"I want people to stop and look and think, 'That's the reason we're out here,'" said
Skinner. "I want them to remember the people we lost, and the Soldiers that have fallen."
The pair started the project around the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Scavenging
for paint and supplies as they worked, the hangar wall took about three weeks to
complete.
Their mural, inside an old Iraqi hardened aircraft shelter, is a depiction of smoke
billowing from the Twin Towers on the left and the image of a 1st Infantry Division
Soldier kneeling at a memorial of fallen comrades on the right. The two images are
separated by a crack representing a fractured history, and held together by the American
flag and an image of the Statue of Liberty that represents freedom.
"One side is the high price of terrorism to our country, and the other shows the
Schweinfurt Soldiers and the ongoing price that we are still paying today," said Maloney.
"People need to remember that there are still Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and marine.
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