The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Final military mural underway
Amherst artist to finish design on Park Avenue
As dusk hushed Park Avenue, Amherst artist Mike Sekletar gathered transparencies of his newest military mural.
“Anxious. I’m ready to go full bore on it,” Sekletar said. “I want to finish it. It’s a short amount of time for doing 10 portraits. Just hoping everything lines up how we did the layout.”
As Sekletar and his father, John Sekletar, a U.S. Navy veteran, gathered a projector for spotlighting the design on the wall beside three previous murals, he slipped in a recording of blues music.
Honoring service members involve in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the newest mural features 10 portraits of Lorain County residents killed in action:
• Eric M. Barnes, AJC U.S. Air Force, killed in action June 10, 2007, Iraq;
• Benjamin W. Biskie, Sgt. U.S. Army, KIA Dec. 24, 2003;
• Ryan “Goose” Giese,
U.S.M.C. Semper Fi Son, KIA Jan. 7, 2011, Afghanistan;
• David R. Hall, Lance Cpl. U.S.M.C., KIA Aug. 31, 2009, Iraq;
• James P. Hunter, Staff
Sgt. U.S. Army, KIA June 18, 2010, Afghanistan;
• Michael J. Medders, Capt. U.S. Army, KIA Sept. 24, 2008, Iraq
• Daniel M. Shepherd, Sgt. U.S. Army, KIA Aug.
15, 2004;
• Norman L. Tollett, Sgt. U.S. Army, KIA April 28, 2007, Iraq;
• Louis Torres, Sgt. U.S. Army, KIA Aug. 22, 2012;
• Robert H. West, MSgt.
U.S. Army, KIA May 14, 2006, Iraq.
Two Lorain County service members who were killed in action but not pictured on the mural include Jason N. Cox, SPC U.S. Army, KIA June 16, 2008; and Bruce E. Horner, Sgt. U.S. Army, KIA June 1, 2007.
John Sekletar said the mural must be finished by 11 a.m. Nov. 11, 2017, for an annual Veterans Day observance on Park Avenue in Amherst.
The event is attended each year by hundreds of people and sometimes school classes.
Mike Bokulich, president of U.S. Sports Video on Medusa Road near Norwalk, watched the spotlighting of the mural with his wife, Barbara, who helps with family notifications about the murals.
Bokulich and his company, which created elevated camera systems for the National Football League, also created an American flag pole that lines up with the flag pole on an Iwo Jima mural at the site.
“My uncle, George Bokulich, is a family hero,” Bokulich said.
His uncle made it to the top of the mountain to post the American flag on Iwo Jima, Bokulich said.
His cousin still has a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes with a green circle instead of red. Two cigarettes were smoked out of the pack, he said.
“My uncle said he never thought he would ever get off the island of Iwo Jima,” Bokulich said.