Ooligan asked me to send them pictures of my life over the time period in the book. They were only able to use four pictures in the book, but I wanted to share more. I like more of an interactive experience with the books I’ve read and I have been lucky enough to know some of my favorite writers. I like emailing them and asking them about their stories so for the time being I’m doing the same thing for people who are interested in my book. Here are some other pictures and if you want to email me and ask about the book use this email: sean@arockorsomething.org
Phil and Janie Davis. Janie had just turned 20 and Phil 22. I was 4 and Keith was 2.
Ft. Drum, NY
In my small apartment on Hawthorne.
My art on the walls and Joe (Francisco) and Jeremy (one of the merged characters that made Mike) back in the art school days.
Wildland Firefighting, Bend, Oregon
I got around
Double Duece
Fast Rope training at Fort Hood, Texas.
Sometime during the training in Louisiana we snuck away and recreated the Last Supper in a shack that sold crawdads by the pound
Hydrating in Louisiana before the war with McCreery (Melvin) and Jason Winslow who would eventually call in the 9 line medical evac on me in Taji.
Gas mask training before being deployed.
young SSG Davis and Eric who was the inspiration for the character Simon in the book.
Our last meal in the states before heading to Iraq. Joe Hogland on the right (Tulley Patterson)
2nd Platoon, Bravo Co, 2/62
I went to visit my father before heading overseas.
Double Deuce
Training in Kuwait before heading north.
Double Deuce
Right around where I ran into the Skittles kid in the book
Tank graveyard
I carried 3 weapons in Iraq: M4 for patrols, Shotgun for breeching, and an AK47 I stole from an Iraqi General’s house.
Baghdad, Iraq
garbage city
Winning hearts and minds. What they don’t tell you when you’re training is that you can’t do a combat mission without tripping on five or six kids.
SSG Davis and Mustafa at the Iraqi Police station south of Taji
Taji, Iraq
A beautiful mosque
Leaders Recon in helicopter over Baghdad and adjacent area
SSG Davis selfie in Blackhawk.
SSG Davis at the cross sabers
on the roof of a museum after the Tea at the Baghdad Zoo chapter. Earlier that morning we drank tea with the zoo security.
You are here. The Baghdad Zoo where we had the famous “hamburgers” in the book.
The guy who made us the “hamburgers” in that part of the book
Patroling the zoo. I was on overwatch with my Bravo Team
Kids would run out to sell us soda anytime we stopped a patrol
training the Iraqi at a Traffic Check Point with Cliff Matier and Shad Thomas.
Z behind the machine gun
Nice shot I took. That’s Keith Dow on the Ma Deuce
Matier riding a moped the kids were trying to sell it
Armed men patroling to kill in a child’s playground. I couldn’t pass up the irony.
devistation
Farook in the book
me at a pipe rupture
walking through the market
We called this kid “Oh My Shit” because that’s what he always said.
Eric on the .50 cal
me and my AK
Us out on patrol during a movement to contact
Driving through Baghdad.
Eric Scott McKinley
Bank of the Tigress from helicopter
Iraqi women transporting good in 100 degree temp
we found a cache of artie rounds.
so many kids
SSG Davis at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Baghdad
The is my truck after we were hit.
Eric’s funeral
When I came back from the war I had no place to stay so Joe and Tom let me live in their unfinished basement in the house on top of Tabor.
The Asylum. When I came back this is how I lived. I used alcohol, drugs, and art to cope. The lifestyle was crazy.
one of the earlier paintings, Determination
My look changed often, or I just looked like a scrub.
Icarus, one of the early paintings
Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans
They took the metal out of my arm years later
The woman my squad found in New Orleans after Katrina. She was a insulin-dependent diabetic without insulin.
New Orleans right after Katrina.
Vonnegut
This series we’re painting our literary heroes
Hemingway with the first paragraph of The Old Man and the Sea behind him. painted by hand, it was a pain in the ass.
Keith holding the Einharger painting we did.
Grand Marshall of the Veterans’ Day parade, Albany, OR
Dante
Hemingway
another Vonnegut
William S. Burroughs
Batman!
Bill Nye
Flannery O’Connor
Bill Murray
Joan Vollmer
speaking on a panel at PSU
Military Advisor for The Canticle of the Black Madonna Opera
Me and my daughter Jackie
My wife Kelly
AWP, Seattle
Reading at Six Days Gallery where I hang my art
Sean Davis 