MARINE CORPS AIRSTATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Since the beginning of the Marine Corps, pride has always been an important virtue to its people, and the Marines here with Marine Wing Support Squadron 171 decided to display it in a very colorful way.
For the Marines of MWSS-171, showing their true colors came in the form of a huge mural painted by two very proud MWSS-171 Marines.
Lance Cpl. Richard Cornwell, MWSS-171 motor transport operator, and Lance Cpl. Jennifer Ungerecht, MWSS-171 combat engineer, first started painting the huge replica of 171's logo on the side of their headquarters building when 90 percent of the unit was sent to Mount Fuji to participate in the training exercise Cloud Warrior.
The project stemmed from former Executive Officer Maj. John Forti's campaign of promoting the logo and unit pride within 171. Additionally, the mural was geared toward being a surprise to MWSS-171's new commanding officer, Lt. Col. Scot Seitz.
"We wanted to give something to the Station to show our air wing pride," said Forti.
According to Cornwell, he knew it wouldn't be easy accomplishing the task before the commanding officer and deployed Marines from 171 returned from Cloud Warrior, so he sought assistance from another 171 Marine.
"I remember him running up to my shop and not being able to understand anything he was saying because he was so excited," said Ungerecht about the overly-thrilled Cornwell.
After Ungerecht was able to calm Cornwell down, he explained the idea to her. Ungerecht had done murals before and said she knew what a great accomplishment it is to finish one, so she accepted.
The first step they took in getting the project started was laying out the general design.
Probably the most common technique utilized in large-scale mural reproduction is a projection method, where the image is beamed onto the wall using a projector, but that wasn't good enough for Cornwell and Ungerecht.
"A lot of people wanted us to use a projector and trace it," said Ungerecht, "but we wanted to add our artistic ability to the project."
With that in mind, the Marines started utilizing a graphing system in which the mural is broken down into a number of smaller boxes and then hand drawn.
"I had never seen this technique before and I wasn't sure it was going to work," said Cornwell. "It worked so well though, that we used it for the whole mural."
After three weeks of being drenched in sweat and paint, the two completed the mural just before the unit returned to the Station.
"These two Marines put a lot of work into the project," said Forti. "They took pride in what they were doing and the Marines of 171 have a lot of pride in the logo and in what they do."