A Gold Star dad brought the iconic "Hell House" image from the Battle of Fallujah to life by casting a new bronze statue that now sits outside the site where some of the Marine Corps' most severely wounded warriors receive their care.
Perhaps one of the most memorable photos taken in Iraq shows then-1st Sgt. Bradley Kasal, severely wounded and being carried by Lance Cpls. Christopher Marquez and Dane Shaffer. Kasal, who is bleeding badly, is still in the fight with his 9mm M9 service pistol in his right hand and his Ka-Bar knife gripped in his left. He later received the Navy Cross for his actions that day.
Exactly 10 years later after the famous photo was snapped by freelance photographer Lucian Read — with adjustments for differing time zones — a 7-foot-tall by 6-foot-wide sculpture was unveiled at the Wounded Warrior Battalion complex aboard Camp Pendleton, California, on Nov. 12. It now sits outside the center where Marines receive medical care, mental health counseling, and assistance as they transition into the next phase of their life.
The "No Man Left Behind" sculpture was dedicated by Hope For The Warriors, a charity committed to post-9/11 service members and their families. The bigger-than-life sculpture was created by John Phelps, a Navy Vietnam veteran whose son, Chance, was killed after his convoy came under heavy fire in Iraq in April 2004.
Phelps, a Navy Vietnam veteran, said he hopes the statue's , and its placement outside the Wounded Warrior Battalion a center where injured Marines receive medical care, mental health counseling, and assistance as they transition into the next phase of their life, is a reminder that Marines they fought for others, and that now others are fighting for them as they recover.
"No one is left behind," he said. "There is a brotherhood of the Marine Corps. Like I said, yYou join the Marine Corps to fight for your country, but when you get there you're fighting for the guys on either side of you."
Read, who took the photo, said he hopes the new statue motivates sends a message to wounded Marines as they recover.
"For each of them, they share in the heroism depicted in the sculpture," he said. "Each of them has a story that is as appropriate to honor as the one that's appropriate to honor as the one in the statue." Read said.
Sculpting from an image
While based on a photograph and true to life, creating the sculpture still required creativity and artistic license. Phelps and Read said. For one, the photograph was shot from the front, so there was nothing to work with when sculpting the backs of the three Marines.
"I just sort of wished him luck and told Phelps that there are probably some Camelbaks back there," Read said with a laugh.
Read started researching what sort of gear the three Marines likely carried. He spoke with other Marines and was able to fill in the details that weren't in the photo. At one point he thought that one of the Lance Corporals could have been a corpsman. Eventually he knew who they were and what they were carrying and he started working with clay.
Phelps He made his sculpture at half-scale and then a studio turned his miniature work into a foam model. He Phelps said he then used clay to add fine details to the foam before it was turned into a mold and then cast the statues.
His The final product is 1/8th larger than real life. Phelps said that statues made at a one-to-one scale appear small because they don't move, so he chose to make his slightly larger. had to make the ones that would go on display at Pendleton and Lejeune bigger.
The statue at Camp Pendleton is Phelps' second "No Man Left Behind" statue. Another, identical to the one at Pendleton, was placed outside the Wounded Warrior Battalion on the East Coast at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in March 2013.
Phelps has sculpted statues of military figures before, and once used his son as a model to depict a soldier fighting in Europe during World War II. This one, and its depictions of three Marines, was more personal, he said.
"It was a labor of love," he said. "It was [about] being able to depict Marines. Had it been Army or National Guard or something, it probably wouldn't have been as poignant."
if it had been the Marine Corps," he said.
Even though statues are at the major East and West Coast Marine bases, Phelps said he wants it displayed in one more place. The statues at Pendleton and Lejeune are reminders for the wounded that receive care there, but they're tucked away inside the installation's fences, off-limits to the general public. Phelps wants more people, particularly civilians, to see the sacrifices Marines made, and how they're a part of a caring brotherhood.
That type of attention, Phelps said, can be achieved by a third statue on the National Mall in Washington D.C. With that, people will remember that as wars end the wounded still need care, he said.
Kasal, who was with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, received the Navy Cross for his actions that day. The citation says that on Nov. 13, 2004, he was assisting a combined anti-armor platoon and saw gunfire break out in front of him, and then Marines run out of a building. When Kasal found out that insurgents had pinned Marines in their position inside the house, he and others fought their way inside. In the process Kasal was wounded in the legs, and when insurgent threw a grenade, Kasal rolled onto another Marine to shield him from the blast. He later refused medical attention until others were cared for, and he rallied Marines as they cleared the house.
Eventually, Marines were able to hold back the insurgents, and Marquez and Shaffer put down their weapons, ran inside the building and take Kasal to safety, a moment Read captured with his camera.
The Pendleton statue is identical to one unveiled at Camp Lejeune in March,2013.
The sculpture is a depiction of Lucian Read's photo, "Hell House." The image is one of the most iconic of the war in Iraq and shows Kasal, bleeding heavily, with his arms around Marquez and Shaffer's shoulders as they lead him to safety.
Hope For The Warriors coordinated the development, funding, and dedication of the two statues. The charity focuses on physical and mental healing for post 9/11 veterans.
Read's picture has become one of the best-known images of the war in Iraq, but it almost didn't make it much beyond his computer's hard drive. Read said he took several pictures that day but could only transmit a few of them back home for publication. He chose a different one and didn't think about the shot of Kasal for months.
Eventually, as Kasal was recovering, one of his caregivers reached out to Read, the photographer recalled. The caregiver said that they were trying to get as many details about what happened in that fight as possible, and they wanted any information he could get. Read went back to his collection of photos and emailed the now-famous image. From there, it spread online.
"It wasn't even something that I had even originally put out there. It was because of the ways that Marines and the military reacted to it," Read said. "Clearly there's sacrifice and heroism and camaraderie in it," he later added.
He said that he thinks people who look at the photograph tend gravitate to Kasal's pistol and knife and almost overlook his injuries. He said he thinks it sends a message that even though Kasal was seriously wounded he was still fighting.
Eventually, the photo, and a plan to turn it into a statue, ended up with Phelps. He had already started working with Hope For The Warriors after his son, then Pfc. Chance Phelps, was killed after his convoy came under heavy fire in Iraq. Chance Phelps was later posthumously promoted to lance corporal.
John Phelps has sculpted statues of military figures before, and once used his son as a model to depict a soldier fighting in Europe during World War II. This one, and its depictions of three Marines, was more personal, he said.
"It was a labor of love. It was being able to depict Marines. Had it been Army or National Guard or something, it probably wouldn't have been as poignant if it had been the Marine Corps," he said.
While based on a photograph and true to life, creating the sculpture still required creativity and artistic license, Phelps and Read said. For one, the photograph was shot from the front, so there was nothing to work with when sculpting the backs of the three Marines.
"I just sort of wished him luck and told Phelps that there are probably some Camelbaks back there," Read said with a laugh.
Read started researching what sort of gear the three likely carried. He spoke with other Marines and was able to fill in the details that weren't in the photo. At one point he thought that one of the Lance Corporals could have been a corpsman. Eventually he knew who they were and what they were carrying and he started working with clay.
He made his sculpture at half-scale and then a studio turned his miniature work into a foam model. Phelps said he then used clay to add fine details to the foam before it was turned into a mold and then cast the statues. The final product is 1/8th larger than real life; Phelps said that statues made at a one-to-one scale appear small because they don't move, so he had to make the ones that would go on display at Pendleton and Lejeune bigger.
Eventually, the Pendleton statue was revealed on the hour of 10-year anniversary of when the photo was taken, adjusted for time zones. The Lejeune statue was revealed in March 2013.
Even though statues are at the major East and West Coast Marine bases, Phelps said he wants it displayed in one more place. The statues at Pendleton and Lejeune are reminders for the wounded that receive care there, but they're tucked away inside the installation's fences, off-limits to the general public. Phelps wants more people, particularly civilians, to see the sacrifices Marines made, and how they're a part of a caring brotherhood.
That type of attention, Phelps said, can be achieved by a third statue on the National Mall in Washington D.C. With that, people will remember that as wars end the wounded still need care, he said.
