T-Barrier Murals

Weathering the heat, rain and dust through the day and night, SPC Victor Lara, D Co. 2nd Battalion, 149th General Support Aviation Battalion Aircraft Maintenance Mechanic, single handedly finished Delta Company and 2-149th GSAB unit patch T-barrier paintings at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, earlier this month.

“It’s taken me about 3 months to finish this job,” SPC Lara said.  “I volunteered because I wanted to leave something special behind that people could remember.”

SPC Lara’s paintings follow the tradition of units painting their mascots or unit patches on T-barriers. His paintings are the third set of T-barrier paintings that will be left positioned in front of the Delta Company Production Control (PC) office. The T-barriers and paintings provide food for imagination when walking out of the PC office and are visual reminders of past units and the danger that calls for the barriers’ presence.

“We put in a request to have the previous unit’s barriers moved, and also get two new barriers put in so SPC Lara could do his work,” said SGT David Seay, D Co. 2-149th GSAB Company Motor Sergeant.  “When he first started, none of us knew how he planned to finish in time or even where he’d start, but everything looks like it moved along pretty well.”

SPC Lara experimented with a number of ideas of getting the elaborate unit patches from paper to the T-barriers. His first idea was to use a projector to put the images on the barriers then trace the designs accordingly, anything after that was done freehand and airbrush.

His fellow Soldiers are reminded of his artistry every day as they walk past his equipment locker.
“I painted my equipment locker as a memorial to my fellow Soldiers who died in the aircraft accident earlier during our tour,” SPC Lara said.  “I’ve very proud of it and I think everyone liked it.”

The T-barriers will now stand the tests of the environment and time, showing the resilience and spirit of Task Force Joker.

By 1LT Anthony Sims Jr.
D Co. 2-149th Unit Public Affairs Representative
15 Mar., 2009