Mom Honors Son With Rolling Memorial 

Mom beside rolling memorial

In December 2005, 20-year old Lance Corporal John M. Holmason and 9 other Marines belonging to F Company, 2nd Batallion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, were killed by an improvised explosive device blast in Fallujah, Iraq.

During John's interment rites at Portland, Oregon, his mother, Karla Comfort, saw a Vietnam War car memorial, which gave her the idea to honor her hero son and his comrades-in-arms with a unique rolling memorial.

Karla knows her son loved Hummers so she did not have a hard time choosing the right vehicle for the rolling memorial.

She purchased a Hummer in January and immediately brought it to the the AirbrushGuy & Co. in Benton, Arkansas. Karla gave the basic instructions on what to include in the paint job to Robert Powell, the artist who transformed the black Hummer into a rolling memorial art piece. But in addition to the image of her son in Dress Blues, and the faces of the nine other Marines, Powell added several surprises for her.

On the left side of the vehicle, a detail of Marines are depicted carrying their fallen comrades through the clouds to their final resting place. The American flag drapes across the hood, the words, 'Semper Fi' crown the front windshield, and the spare tire cover carries the same Eagle Globe and Anchor design that her son had tattooed on his back. 

It took two hundred and fifty man-hours for Powell to finish the project. The custom job would have cost $25,000, but out of respect for Karla Comfort's loss, and the sacrifices the Marines made, AirbrushGuy & Co. did it for free. She only paid $3,000 for the cost of the paint.

On March 2, 2006, Karla Comfort received a lot of looks and even some salutes from people when she drove from Benton, Arkansas, to Camp Pendleton, California, in her custom-painted Hummer.... her rolling memorial to fallen Marines.

The rolling memorial is Karla's way of sharing the story of her son and his comrades across the nation.