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Seabee Artist Finds Inspiration in Iraq

By Equipment Operator 2nd Class Lori Roberts

Fallujah, Iraq (21-07) -- Looking more like a college student than a soldier, he bends his head in concentration over a comic-like logo he is creating for the “Rock Hounds,” a convoy team of earth and rock movers that have become essential to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 28 projects around Iraq.

He signs his work “Scetch,” an intentional misspelling of “Sketch” that you would expect from an artist. His fellow Seabees may not know this or many other things about him, but they do know when they see artwork depicting their bee or battalion, NMCB 28’s Construction Electrician 3rd Class Mark Decker is involved.

Decker, 26, has been creating artwork for as long as he can remember and began creating representations of the NMCB 28 emblem and other works while still in A-school in Wichita Falls, Texas. There, he painted a Seabee statue outside the quarterdeck and created a memorial anchor, both of which are still on display at Sheppard Air Force Base.

Since then, Decker has been both officially and unofficially decorating the world in which Seabees live… making drill and deployment a more aesthetic experience for everyone around him.

While in Port Hueneme, Calif. during mobilization, Decker began designing t-shirts and coins for the battalion. Many designs originated on napkins in restaurants at dinner with his fellow Seabees… preserving the ideas spurned by conversations of Seabee history and the impending deployment while the ideas were still fresh in his mind. Construction Electrician 1st Class Brian Landreneau, of LaCombe, La., was one of the first witnesses of Decker’s napkin art.

“He’s amazing,” said Landreneau. “Ask him to draw something and he can spontaneously come up with a design within minutes.”

When the battalion arrived in Kuwait at the beginning of the deployment, Decker created a mural on the smoke-pit wall as a memorial that NMCB 28 had been there.

“The art definitely left a mark that we had been there,” said Storekeeper 2^nd Class Holly Twomey, of Slidell, La. “We go in and do our jobs, bringing out the old and bringing in the new, taking charge and getting the job done, and that’s what the drawing said to me.”

He continued his artistic journey after arriving at Camp Fallujah. Decker created a memorial mural in the command building and theme murals in several other buildings and office spaces around Camp Knott, which is the Seabee compound named in memory of fallen Seabee Steelworker 3rd Class Eric L. Knott.

“The memorial mural was a collaboration between Decker and I,” said Lt. Ivan Cavenall, Officer in Charge of NMCB 28 Delta Company in Fallujah. “I had some ideas of what I wanted and Decker took those ideas and created a work of art that will acknowledge all who witness the price that has been paid by those Seabees lost from the battalions who worked and lived in our compound before us.”

Chief Hospital Corpsman Victor Valdez-Perez requested a mural from Decker on the wall of the Basic Aid Station as a complement to the corpsman memorial already on the wall.

“When people come in here, I want them to recognize the integral role medical plays in our mission here,” said Valdez-Perez. “I want my corpsmen to come into this building and feel pride and ownership in who we are, where we are, and what we’re doing here, and I want to honor those who have gone before us. Decker’s mural will add to that energy.”

Decker, who thinks of himself as a graffiti artist, was working on his tattoo apprenticeship in Houston, Texas when he was activated with NMCB 28.

“I started drawing when I was two—at least, that’s what my mom says,” explained Decker. “I keep drawing because I like expressing myself visually, and because in this environment it provides a lot of stress relief for me, and hopefully for the people who see my art.”

Decker is proud of being a Bee and feels he is expressing this pride through his work.

“When I do work for the Bees, it is not only representing me, but Seabees as a whole,” said Decker. “I want people to look at my work and see the hard-driven construction battalion that we are with a Can-Do attitude no matter what obstacle is in our way. I also want people to see into the heart of the Seabees because they are such good people.”

The Seabees of NMCB 28 appreciate Decker’s expression of what they stand for. Cavenall said it best: “When we leave from here, everyone who walks through the quarterdeck or sees any of Decker’s art will realize the legacy of those of us who were here before us and who are here now.”

NMCB 28 is part of nearly 1,100 Sailors and Marines supporting critical construction efforts in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq.