THE DUST-OFF

17 x 11 inch ink and watercolor painting by George C. Clark    Collection of the Artist

ON THE NIGHT OF MOTHER'S DAY, 1969, VIET CONG FORCES MADE A GROUND ASSAULT AGAINST BRAVO BATTERY.  AT FIRST LIGHT, WITH A FIREFIGHT STILL RAGING, A MEDEVAC PILOT BRAVED A HAIL OF AUTOMATIC WEAPONS FIRE TO LAND HIS HELICOPTER INSIDE OUR COMPOUND TO TAKE OUT THE SERIOUSLY WOUNDED.  WE POPPED WHITE SMOKE TO MARK THE ONLY LANDING SITE OPEN ENOUGH TO CLEAR HIS ROTOR BLADES.

Comment:
This painting has been in all the in all the venues where A Year in the Tropics or elements from it have been exhibited.  It was one of six paintings from the series in the 2001 exhibition "Stars & Stripes: Art by Veterans of War" at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, and was reproduced on the show's announcement.  It was one of two of my paintings shown at the Milwaukee Art Museum in 1992 in an exhibition devoted to Midwest members of the United States Air Force Art Program.  When I do another one-person exhibition of this series I will probably use this painting as the poster/announcement art.