Until several weeks ago, Michael Reagan had never heard of Citizen Honors, awards presented by the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. After a whirlwind trip to Washington, D.C., and Arlington National Cemetery last week, he is home in Edmonds as a 2015 honoree.
Since 2004, Reagan has been hand-drawing portraits of American servicemen and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through his nonprofit Fallen Heroes Project, he has given more than 4,200 portraits to parents, widows and widowers, children and other loved ones mourning wartime losses.
On Wednesday, Reagan was one of three people — two from Washington state — awarded Citizen Honors medals at Arlington National Cemetery, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Ceremonies included a wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns and the awards presentation in the Women in Military Service for America Memorial.
Reagan, 67, was recognized for service — the realistic portraits he creates for families for free — while the others were honored for heroic acts.
A Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam, Reagan said Thursday that during the trip he was asked by a TV reporter if he thought he was a hero for providing solace to families through his art. He said he replied, “My heroes are the people I’m drawing.”
Jon Meis, the Seattle Pacific University graduate who last June tackled and subdued a gunman on campus, won the award for heroism. The other honoree for heroism was Alton Brieske, of Port St. Lucie, Florida, who rescued an elderly man whose car had plunged into an alligator-infested canal.
Seattle Pacific University President Dan Martin praised Meis, of Renton, in a statement Wednesday. “We are immensely proud of alumnus Jon Meis’ recognition today,” said Martin, “not only for his quick thinking and brave response on June 5, but for his continuing deep faith and witness to God.”
The Congressional Medal of Honor Society was founded in 1958 in remembrance of recipients of the Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. military honor for valor. Ron Rand, president and CEO of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, said the nonprofit group perpetuates the legacy of the medal and values it embodies — courage, sacrifice, commitment, integrity, citizenship and patriotism.
Eight years ago, Rand said, the foundation began recognizing “three ordinary citizens” per year, two for heroism and one for “service before self.” Medal of Honor recipients take part in the selection process.
In his home studio, Reagan spends much of his time on the Fallen Heroes Project. He is often up and drawing by 3 a.m., helped by photos families provide. A trained artist, he worked 30 years for the University of Washington, and designed one of the Husky logos. Today, his drawing pencils help bring cherished memories home from war.
Every Tuesday, Reagan has a helper, a Gold Star father whose son, Army 2nd Lt. Ben Colgan, was killed in Iraq in 2003. Reagan said Joe Colgan drives to Edmonds from his Kent area home to “take everything to the post office,” shipping out finished portraits.
For Reagan, last week’s trip reminded him of sacrifices experienced in Vietnam.
Present at the ceremony were two men linked to his Vietnam duty. One was a former Navy corpsman with whom he served, the other a nephew of Vincent Santaniello, a fellow Marine who was killed March 28, 1968. Reagan said he and the corpsman were there when Santaniello, a lance corporal from New York, died in his arms. “It was the onset of a two-day firefight,” he said. “I wear his name on my wrist every day.”
The trip also brought sad reminders of recent war dead, his portrait subjects. He visited Arlington National Cemetery’s Section 60, the final resting place of many killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the grave of Eric Herzberg, a 20-year-old Marine killed in Iraq in 2006, Reagan was with the young man’s father, “a good friend and Gold Star dad.”
Reagan, who had drawn the young Marine’s portrait, said he looked up and saw the names on nearby gravestones. Instead of just names, he said that in his mind’s eye he saw images he had drawn. “I knew them — their families, their kids and grandparents. I had talked to them,” Reagan said.
He isn’t finished with the Fallen Heroes Project. Nearly 7,000 American service members have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Reagan has also drawn portraits of British and Canadian military members who fought alongside Americans. He is now working with the Polish government to draw portraits of 43 from Poland. “They died with us,” he said.
“The project changed me tremendously,” Reagan said. “This has become who I am.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Learn more
Find out about Michael Reagan’s Fallen Heroes Project at: www.fallenheroesproject.org/
Information about the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation’s Citizen Honors Program: www.cmohfoundation.org/
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