Eva Cooper of Poteau recently received a package in the mail from someone she didn’t know. When she opened it, she found a charcoal drawing of her oldest son, CW2 Randy L. Billings and a note from the artist Michael Reagan.
Billings was killed while serving his country in Operation Enduring Freedom when the Black Hawk helicopter he was riding in crashed after being hit with enemy fire December 17, 2013 in Zabul in southern Afghanistan. Five other soldiers lost their lives in the crash.
The drawing is one of over 5500 portraits of fallen heroes completed for the Fallen Hero Portrait Project. Reagan does the drawings free of charge for the families. Reagan, who served his country as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam, began drawing portraits of his fellow Marines. He says, “In most cases, those images were all that returned home.”
One of those portraits was of his friend who died in Reagan’s arms just two months before Reagan’s return to the US. He says his friend’s last words were “Mike, I just want to go home.” Reagan says, “So that’s what I’m trying to do with all my portraits of the Fallen, get them home.”
For more information about the Fallen Hero Project or to request a portrait of a Fallen Hero, visit Fallen Heroes Project.
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