COB Adder demuralized, graffiti preserved by photos

Photo By Spc. Andrew Slovensky | Spc. Richard Koke, mechanic for the 25th Infantry Division, paints over a mural on Contingency Operating Base Adder, Oct. 3. Service members covered the murals on COB Adder and other installations in Iraq in preparation for the departure of U.S. troops.  

TALLIL, IRAQ

10.25.2011

Story by Pvt. Andrew Slovensky 

362nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

COB ADDER, Iraq - The murals on Contingency Operating Base Adder are disappearing. Almost overnight, many of the tall, concrete barriers featuring graffiti artwork received a fresh coat of white paint.

Deployed service members have often designed murals on t-walls around U.S. bases in Iraq. The paintings illustrated everything from unit affiliations, military vehicles and equipment, mythological and historic figures, ranks, names, and anything else that flowed from the creative minds of the artists.

In preparation for the departure of U.S. troops from Iraq, soldiers have been asked to paint over the murals, said Sgt. Maj. Charles Rosado, 25th Infantry Division Tactical Command Post non-commissioned officer in charge. “Painting over the murals is part of giving the installation back to Iraq.”

A project called the Graffiti of War is an effort to document the murals and artistic efforts of service members left behind in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan.

“The project came to life as an idea within my platoon,” said Jaeson Parsons, an original collaborator and director of operations for Graffiti of War. Parsons, who deployed to Iraq as a combat medic in early 2006, said he and his fellow soldiers were discussing the graffiti they saw during a long mission in Al-Taqaddum Airbase, Iraq.

“Many of these murals are historical markers, a sort of ‘who's who’ of units and divisions that were deployed in this war,” said Parsons, who made a return trip to Iraq this summer in order to document as many of the murals and expressions left behind.

The Graffiti of War project has collected an anthology of art left by deployed service members, and will be part of an art exhibit tour around the nation. The exhibit features more than 400 pieces ranging in size, and is expected to start on Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11, in Pottsville, Pa.

The exhibit’s purpose is to share the art with a public audience in order to help them better understand the struggles and accomplishments of service members deployed to combat zones.

Parsons, who said he suffered his own battle with post-traumatic stress disorder, wants to raise awareness for PTSD and other “invisible wounds” that service members suffer in combat that are not always evident.

“These murals and artistic creations represent a glimpse of a moment in time when this unit was there, an unconventional record of the decade of war our nation and her warfighters struggled through,” said Parsons.

As U.S. troops leave Iraq, they will not be creating new murals.

Although new coats of paint will obscure the murals on COB Adder and other installations in Iraq, they will be remembered through photography, and shared with the people who supported the efforts from home.

• Date Taken: 10.25.2011
• Date Posted: 10.25.2011 03:38
• Story ID: 78951
• Location: TALLIL, IQ