Karla Comfort
received a lot of looks and even some salutes from people when she drove from
Benton, Ark., to Camp Pendleton, Calif., in her newly-painted, custom Hummer H3
March 2. The vehicle is adorned with the likeness of her son, 20-year-old Lance
Cpl. John M. Holmason, and nine other Marines with F Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th
Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division who where all killed by the same improvised
explosive device blast in Fallujah, Iraq, in December.
For Karla Comfort,
having the vehicle air brushed with the image of the 10 Marines was a way to pay
homage to her hero and his fellow comrades who fell on Iraq's urban battlefield.
"I wanted to let people know (Marines) are doing their jobs honorably, and
some of them die," said the 39-year-old from
Portland
,
OR
"I don't want people to forget the sacrifices that my son and the other
Marines made."
Leading up to her
son's death, Karla Comfort had received several letters from him prior to his
return. He had been deployed for five months, and Comfort "worried everyday
he was gone until she got the letters and found out the date he was coming
home," she said.
Marines knocked on the front door of her home in
Farmington
,
Mich.
, at 3 am with the dreadful news.
"I let my guard down when I found out he was coming home," she said.
"There are times that I still cannot believe it happened. It's very hard to
deal with."
Karla Comfort came
up with the idea for the rolling memorial when she and her two other sons
attended John's funeral in Portland,
Ore.
"I saw a
Vietnam
(War) memorial on a car, and I said to my son Josh, 'we should do something
like that for John,' she recalled. "He loved Hummers."
She purchased the vehicle in January and immediately took it to AirbrushGuy
& Co. in
Benton
,
Ark.
, where artist Robert Powell went to work on changing the plain, black vehicle
into a decorative, mobile, art piece.
"I only had the vehicle for two days before we took it in," she joked.
Two hundred and
fifty man-hours later, Powell had completed the vehicle. The custom job would
have cost $25,000. Out of respect for Karla Comfort's loss and the
sacrifices the Marines made, AirbrushGuy & Co. did it for free. Comfort only
had to purchase the paint, which cost $3,000.
"I love it," she said. "I'm really impressed with it, and I think
John would be happy with the vehicle. He would have a big smile on his face
because he loved Hummers."
Karla Comfort gave
Powell basic instructions on what to include in the paint job. But in addition
to the image of her son in Dress Blues and the faces of the nine other Marines,
there were several surprises. "He put a lot more on than I
expected," she said. "I think my favorite part is the heaven
scene."
On the left side of the vehicle, a detail of Marines are depicted carrying their
fallen comrades through the clouds to their final resting place. The American
flag drapes across the hood, the words, "Semper Fi" crown the front
windshield and the spare tire cover carries the same Eagle Globe and Anchor
design that her son had tattooed on his back.
"All the support I have been getting is wonderful," she said.
Karla Comfort decided to move back to her hometown of Portland, and making the
cross-country trip from
Arkansas
was a way for her to share her son's story. It's also her way of coping with
the loss.
"Along the way I got nothing but positive feedback from people," she
said. "What got to me was when people would salute the guys (Marines). It's
hard to look at his picture. I still cry and try to get used to the idea, but
it's hard to grasp the idea that he's really gone."
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