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 a.m. 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."
Now this is something my husband and I had NEVER seen before. When I showed him the photo tonight, he was as floored as I was. Now that's really something when something from WWII wow's both of us, since we are pretty well versed in the history.
This photo is from the Anzio book I just bought this week titled, Anzio 1944 - The Beleaguered Beachhead.
"One of the more intriguing Allied innovations used at Anzio was the addition of a flight deck to LST's by 3rd Division Engineers. This permitted L-4 observation aircraft to fly artillery observation missions from offshore when airbases were not available in the beachhead." Photo provided by NARA
Okay boys, this should bring back some memories for some of you. Please respond with any personal recollections. This is taken from HQ of the 2832nd Bn of the 540th Engineers. I will have more for you as I go. Thank GOD I can type fast. WHEW!!!! Please excuse any errors. I will correct as I see...
At about 1930 hours on 25th March 1945, river crossing storm and assault boats started moving from the town of Frankenthal to the river crossing site on the West bank of the Rhine by truck.
The weather was very good. Skies were clear and there was a bright moon.
Initially no smoke was used to cover engineer operations.
No fire from the enemy was encountered until approximately 2200 hours when enemy CP's discovered our movement on the West Bank. From 2200 hours on; until our artillery preparation at 0152 on 26 March 1945, we received harrassing artillery fire which landed in our boat assembly area, causing some casualties among the engineer troops and boats.
Immediately after our artillery preparation began, we started to receive heavy shell and mortar fire which lasted throughout the night.
H Hour was met at 0230 when the first of the storm boats were placed in the water and started across. At this time machine gun fire had started on the far bank and there was some small arms fire coming across.
By H + 1 hour, artillery fire from the West bank was so continuous that it was impossible to start raft or cable construction as previously scheduled.
By dawn the first D-D tank had started across the river. Two of these tanks were sunk while attempting to get out on the far shore. One D-D tank did not attempt to cross due to the fact that it had received holes in its canvass(sic) prior to reaching the river on the friendly side.
The first DUKWs that crossed, were successfully put on the far shore without the aid of cables.
Later on during the day all DUKWs that crossed by use of DUKW cables.
The Heavy Ponton raft was put into operation and the first armor started crossing at approximately 0930 hours. Shortly after this an infantry support raft was put into operation and vehicles started to cross.
The heavy ponton raft was knocked out by enemy artillery fire during the night of 26th-27th but was replaced in about one hour.
Artillery and mortar fire was received throughout D Day and D+1 from upstream of the sites.
Smoke was started during the hours of morning on D Day which greatly reduced the accuracy of enemy fire on the engineer operations.
By noon on D + 1 a total of 98 wheeled, 22 tracked and 62 trailers supporting the operation had been crossed on ferries and approximately 70 DUKWs containing ammo and artillery had crossed by free ferry and cable.
Communications were continually in need of repair due to artillery and mortar fire throughout the operation.
Practically no difficulty was experienced initially in starting of the motors for the storm and assault waves. Almost all of the losses of boats and motors was due to enemy action.
The upstream defense did not get any mine barriers into the water until the evening of D + 1 due to the fact that the far shore and the town of Mannheim some 1000 yards downstream had not been entered and mortar and shell fire was continuous and their positions were under direct observation by the enemy.
I have to start typing in a database of all the journal entries I come across. As many of you know, I am reading through a couple of thousand docs from the National Archives. Right now I am in PERUSE mode and trying to scan just to see what's there for me. In the last two days have come across my dad's name (see WWII Engineer section of this forum) and other references to the other divisions and engineer groups. Just ran across this one:
S-4 entry March 4, 1945 2200 hours
Group was ordered to maintain liason with the 3rd Infantry Division.
March 25 2100
Received 3rd Infantry Division Filed Order #3, dated 24 Mar 45
March 26 0230
7th Infantry Regiment supported by 2832nd Engr C Bn and 30th Infantry Regiment supported by 2833rd (dad's) Engr Bn crossed Rhine River.
Have run across all kinds of Rhine River crossing maps, etc. Very detailed configuration/communication diagrams etc. Shows pontons, bridges, river flow, etc. Displays order of crossing for inf divs and the engineers. Fascinating docs. I am having a ball going through all this.
Please excuse any errors. I will correct as I see...
