EDMONDS — Michael Reagan was up hours before sunrise Friday to begin work on a portrait of a soldier who fought in World War II.
Two pictures of Private Mikio Hasemoto overlapped on his drawing table. He used the photos he found on the Internet to begin sketching a portrait of the Medal of H
onor recipient.
It wasn’t an easy task to begin. Neither photo was of good quality. Reagan, 63, picked up his Staedtler drawing pencil and got to work.
The hand-drawn portrait of Hasemoto is number 15 of 21 Medal of Honor recipients who were part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a unit comprised entirely of Japanese-Americans. The portraits will be part of a permanent monument this June at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, Reagan said.
“This is the hardest one to do,” Reagan said Friday at his Edmonds home. “It’s the first of the last seven, and they have to be done by Thursday. At 4 a.m. I have a lot of energy so that’s why I started this one first.”
The portrait is the 2,532nd one Reagan has drawn of military servicemen and women since beginning the Fallen Heroes Project in April 2004. The project began after Reagan, a Vietnam-combat veteran, was contacted by the wife of Navy corpsman Michael Johnson, who died in Iraq in March 2003.
The woman, Cherice Johnson, had seen a story on Evening Magazine about Reagan’s portrait work for presidents and celebrities.
“She said he was a corpsman and he died last year in Iraq,” Reagan said. “A corpsman kept a lot of my friends alive in Vietnam and I said to her, ‘I can’t charge you.’ I didn’t know I was going to change my life.”
After she received the portrait, Reagan said she called him. The portrait helped her sleep for the first full night in a year, Reagan remembers being told. After that call Reagan told his wife, Cheryl, that he had to draw the portraits of all the servicemen and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and give them to their families.
Reagan and his Fallen Heroes Project was honored Thursday with a resolution by the State Senate. The resolution included that the goal of his project is “to depict all of our country’s fallen soldiers, more than 5,800 since these conflicts began.”
State Sen. Maralyn Chase, D-Edmonds, first learned about Reagan’s work three years ago, she said.
“We’d been trying to figure out how we could honor him and thank him for his service to our country and for the comfort he brings to the families of people who have served in the military,” she said. “This man doesn’t have to do this. I really respect him.”
Reagan brought 10 posterboards to Olympia filled with 2,300 digital copies of the portraits he has drawn for military families. He told the senators and families of military personnel in the audience that the project is not about him. Hearing the resolution made him feel both proud and humbled, Reagan said.
“What got to me the most that I remember from the proclamation is when the senator looked up at me and said, ‘And we’re proud he’s one of ours,’ ” he said.
Mary Anne Ross, a legislative assistant for state Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, brought the portrait Reagan drew for her of her son to the presentation. Her son, Abraham Twitchell, served as a Marine and died five years ago in Iraq. He is smiling and wearing a baseball cap in the portrait.
“(Reagan) came to the office to give me the portrait, and when he took the cover off the picture it just took my breath away,” Ross said. “Abe had the best eyes and the best smile.”
Ross was part of a group luncheon after the presentation Thursday at the Governor’s Mansion. It was the second time she’s had the chance to talk to Reagan in person, she said.
“Yesterday, he shared when he left Vietnam he left a lot of his friends who died there,” she said. “He said through doing the sketches of everybody he’s been able to bring a lot of himself back home. It’s as much therapy for him as it is for the families, that’s the impression I get.”
Reagan is retired after working 30 years for the University of Washington, where he was director of trademarks and licensing and designed the Husky logo modeled after an Alaskan Malamute named Turbo Carrera. He spends about five hours working on every portrait and receives two to three requests for portraits everyday. He doesn’t leave any unfinished once he starts working on one, he said.
Families send Reagan photos and information about their loved ones and he spends time learning about each and every one before sitting down to sketch. Once he’s done with a portrait, Reagan takes a digital photograph of his work and sends the finished portrait to the family. He’s drawn only two portraits twice, in order to keep one for himself, he said.
The stories that come with the family photos are always sad and can make his job difficult at times, Reagan said. He distracts himself between drawings with long walks down to the beach and fills his studio with sports memorabilia and mementos given and made for him by the families who receive the portraits. His wife is his constant supporter and he enjoys the company of his four cats.
“This is what my life is now,” Reagan said. “If somebody gave me a way tomorrow to reach every family and tell them about the portraits I’d take them up on it.”
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.
The Fallen Heroes Project
For more information about Michael Reagan and The Fallen Heroes Project or to make a donation go to www.fallenheroesproject.org.
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