Murals help support morale at Moody's sheet-metal shop

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Parker Gyokeres
  • 23rd Wing Public Affairs
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  Using leftover paint, Air Force job knowledge and their own free time, four Team Moody members took it upon themselves to add seven murals depicting the history and mission of the 23rd Wing to the freshly painted walls of their industrial workcenter.

The murals, which were painted by Airmen with the 723rd Maintenance Squadron fabrication flight over a period of three months, are of old and new service designs, historically accurate wing heraldry and the newly-adopted Airman's creed.

The flight was working at a temporary facility as their shop floor was re-coated this past March. Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Fisk and Staff Sgt. Christopher Russell, 723rd MXS metals technicians, knew this renovation project was their best opportunity to improve the view.

"Our timing was perfect because the shop wouldn't have any machine tools in it for about a month while the epoxy floor cured," said Sergeant Fisk. "Sergeant Russell and myself drafted up a plan for all the murals and had it approved by our leadership. We wanted a theme that showed both the past history of our wing, and the current mission we support every day from this facility."

With a master plan in place, the two sergeants began a project that would eventually involve four Airmen, five walls and nearly 300 man-hours of volunteer labor.

Working on the weekends, the first two completed murals were an old-style "Hap Arnold" logo and original Flying Tigers emblem, said Sergeant Fisk.

"Tech. Sgt. Patrick Smith, 723rd MXS metals technician, researched our artwork and helped us prepare transparencies," he said. "We borrowed an overhead projector from the 23rd Medical Group to display the art on walls to trace it onto masking tape, cut it out and paint it, one color at a time. After that, we would re-mask the image and trace out the next color."

This process was relatively simple, as long as one critical rule was always followed, said Sergeant Russell.

"If anyone bumped our projector, none of the following layers would line up properly and it was ruined," he said. "We had to totally re-paint a few murals in the last moments because people weren't paying attention. We ended up threatening people with death or worse if they came anywhere near the projector and wiped out all of our work. That solved the problem."

The largest mural in the project is a large half-globe, encircled with key aircraft from the history of the Flying Tigers. The aircraft were hand-painted by Senior Airman Amanda Stanley.

"We began the largest mural right at the beginning, and Airman Stanley worked on it, mostly solo, for the rest of the project," said Sergeant Fisk. "The level of detail she put into it took her almost two months. It's a beautiful job."

Each mural took two people an average of 30 hours to complete, said Sergeant Fisk. He feels the nearly three months of effort was worth it and hopes future Airmen appreciate the art for years to come.

"These murals should be here long after we have moved on," said Sergeant Fisk. "Who knows what changes they will see or aircraft that might be added. It feels really good to have left our mark on Moody in a positive way."