Volunteer Finds Homes for Fallen Heroes Posters

Here is the email I received from Bobbi Baker, who has granted permission to share this here:

I simply must tell you how uplifting my experience with Operation Gratitude has been.

As you know, I have recently become involved with sending letters to our courageous young men and women in uniform.

I'm positive that the appreciation they will get from receiving letters of thanks will not compare to the feeling of giving that I get from writing those letters.

However one may feel about the wars in which we are now engaged, support of our troops is, in my opinion, our American duty. They put their lives in danger daily to ensure our safety and security and deserve no less than our never-ending gratitude.

Michael Reagan, the renowned artist who graciously provides portraits of fallen heroes to family members, provided six posters which are collages of the portraits he created from photos sent by the families.

Should someone want further information on the artist or the fantastic portraits he creates, the link is www.fallenheroesproject.org/

For the past several weeks it has been my pleasure to find "homes" for these posters.

You'll be pleased to know that West Point requested two of them and our local Southern California Army Reserve unit asked me for one that they intended to frame immediately and hang in a place of honor.

I visited the John Kennedy Memorial Armory (was not aware that Operation Gratitude had a presence in this facility) and spoke with the recruiter. He absolutely fell in love with the posters -- looked over so carefully the three I had left -- he simply could not make a decision.

Finally, he rather shyly asked if he could hang two in the main building and the third in his office. He selected the one with the poem for his office and said he would go out that very day to purchase frames.

I just could not say no to him, so all six posters now have permanent homes where they will be given the respect so well deserved.

God bless our troops,
Bobbi Baker

Blog note: Michael Reagan has a foundation to help with the costs for this project. (He has created 2,200 portraits to date.) Consider donating whatever you can to this compelling project -- www.fallenheroesproject.org/

And you can download copies of the posters directly from the site at http://www.fallenheroesproject.org/posters/

Here is a quote from this page of the site:

The posters are a compilation of the digital images of the individual fallen hero portraits completed by Michael Reagan for the Gold Star families. The portraits contain Fallen Heroes from the United States up to poster number six; posters seven and upward include Fallen Heroes from the United Kingdom and Canada.

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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and her social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing works with clients to use social media to attract more business. Read her social media marketing blog.

Michael Reagan's Portraits Capture the Men and Women Who Have Given Their Lives for Our Country

On June 30th I wrote the blog post titled "Michael Reagan's Life-Life Portraits of Fallen Warriors" about the amazing portrait artist who for the last five years has dedicated his life to drawing portraits of fallen U.S. military men and women.

He has made several posters with collages of the portraits he has drawn. One of these posters is above, but it is too small to do justice to Michael's work. I've had the privilege of seeing the posters in person -- and they are extremely powerful.

To look at the faces of these men and women (yes, women, too) and know that they gave their lives serving our country.

Please go to Michael's site fallenheroesproject.org now and donate for the postage and other costs associated with these portraits. He himself takes no money for these portraits. And click on the posters, which will enlarge and you'll be able to see the faces of the military personnel who died for the U.S.

And you can read my June 30th blog post about this incredible project and listen to the BlogTalkRadio YourMilitaryLife.com interview that Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com and I did of Michael Reagan.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs as a National Internet Business Examiner and at Operation Support Jews in the Military and Fiction Marketing, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her newest military-related project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Phyllis' company Miller Mosaic LLC provides internet marketing information to help people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company launched the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.

Michael Reagan's Life-Like Portraits of Fallen Warriors

Five years ago artist Michael Reagan's unusual project began with a phone call from a woman whose husband had died in Iraq. Would Michael create a hand-drawn portrait from a photo of her husband? And how much would the portrait cost?

Michael, a former Marine in Vietnam, told the widow that he couldn't take money for the portrait. And five years later he's drawn over 1500 portraits of fallen heroes.

On our BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com, Michael shared with Nancy Brown and me the story of this first portrait. He said that the widow told him that, when the portrait arrived, she looked into her dead husband's eyes -- and slept through the night for the first time in the year since he had been killed.

It's these stories that keep Michael and his wife determined to continue this project even though he now does two portraits a day and each portrait takes about five hours. No one makes any money for the portraits but there are costs associated with the project -- including framing, mailing, supplies.

Go to Michael Reagan's site now at fallenheroesproject.org to see samples of his amazing life-like portraits and to donate to this project that means so much to the loved ones of the fallen warriors.

Then get out your tissue box and listen to the interview of Michael Reagan describing his compelling project that gives back to the families of the men and women who have paid the ultimate price in the service of our country.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs as a National Internet Business Examiner and at Operation Support Jews in the Military and Fiction Marketing, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her newest military-related project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Phyllis' company Miller Mosaic LLC provides internet marketing information to help people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company is launching the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.