RD's Art - Class 29 Book

 

In June of 2000, RD completed and published a book titled "To Be Someone Special - The Story of UDTra Class 29". It had been in the making for about a year. and is all about his Underwater Demolition Team Training Class #29 in the winter of 1962, Coronado, California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were 41 graduates of that class, seven officers and thirty-four enlisted men. The initial group numbered approximately four hundred enlisted men and 30 officers, but the attrition rate was steep over the twenty-six weeks of intense training as men voluntarily dropped out or were dropped due to injury. On December 10, 1962 Class 29 graduated forty-one victorious frogmen. RD was one of those enlisted men. He was also one of the nineteen enlisted men who came straight out of Navy boot camp to UDT training, a new experimental policy instituted in 1962 in an effort to improve the trainee attrition rate while not compromising the quality of training. It was successful in Class 29 and those nineteen "boots" were proud of their achievement.

After training the frogmen were assigned to either UDT 11, UDT12, or SEAL Team One, west coast Teams. They rotated from advanced training to deployments in Vietnam over the course of their enlistments. 

RD's book is about their shared experience in training, not about their time in Vietnam. In the 1960s the UDTs and newly formed SEAL Teams were secretive by design. The mystique of "The Men With Green Faces" had a huge role in their success. Nowadays with all the movies, books, and even video games about Navy SEALs the public doesn't realize the UDT/ SEAL Teams operated as a clandestine force, a secret weapon in Vietnam.

 

 

RD located and contacted as many of his classmates as he could. That in itself was quite a roller coaster ride, the reunions, the long telephone conversations, the joy at finally getting contact information on a classmate only to learn he was no longer alive. Eleven of the forty-one had died, and two he could not find. He asked the twenty-seven living teammates, seven officers, "The Magnifient Seven", and twenty enlisted, to write about their memories of training, and they did! And Jack Sudduth, OIC of the training unit, contributed his memories of training, and that class in particular. As for the thirteen who could not contribute, and a few who could but didn't, RD wrote about those men whom he remembered well yet struggled to tell their stories as they would want them told.

 

 

The book is heavily illustrated with photographs, charts, artwork, and even poems. As RD received each story from a classmate we filed it in a separate folder then searched for appropriate photographs to accompany the story. RD's memories of training, already vivid and accurate, were stimulated by what his teammates wrote. For months he re-lived and breathed his UDT training experiences in his head and his fitful sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, in June of 2000, we took the finished manuscript, created on our home PC, to Kinkos, ordered fifty copies of the 180 pieces of paper, most printed on both sides, brought those back home where we formed an assembly line on the big flat surface of a bed, and walked up and down with armloads of papers, making RD's book. We hadn't numbered any of the pages for a couple of reasons so it was essential we not make mistakes in the page order as we assembled fifty books. Then back to Kinkos to have them bound with coil binding and clear plastic front and back covers. 

This was a huge undertaking by RD, born of love for the Teams and his desire to share his memories with his classmates, let them know what they meant to him. He never intended to make the book available to the public therefore most people don't know about this creative project of RD's. The books were well received by his classmates, treasured even, well...except for one. One of RD's closest friends in Class 29 was married to a woman who insisted he walk away from his experience in the Teams and not look back. She was offended by the booklet RD sent out, a preview of the book, with Team art included, a humorous thing. Perhaps she had her husband's best interests at heart. We'll never know. It was she who wrote to RD and told him to stop corresponding with her husband. It made him angry and broke his heart but he did what she asked, no, she demanded. And he made the offhand comment to me that the guy always did have a problem with the women in his life.

Throughout this class's training RD's boat crew excelled but it was during Hell Week they really pulled ahead, so much so the instructors suspected that somehow they had sneaked in an outboard motor. But no, they truly were an exceptional crew with six enlisted men and ENS William T. White III as coxswain. RD tried to explain the dynamics of that to me several times but I didn't really understand. I came away with this...Mr. White knew the water, the waves, and how to read them from his experience surfing all his life and his crew trusted him completely. They won Hell Week and secured early, a big thing. RD was surprised to learn that thirty-eight years later Jack Sudduth still believed Boat Crew 6 must have cheated. No, they were really that good!

 

 

At some point when there was discussion about naming the book RD suggested "Yesterday's Wine", after Willie Nelson's song with that title. He created a cover using that theme. But he was outvoted and the other cover with Barney House's art was preferred. When we assembled the books I made one with RD's Yesterday's Wine cover for I think it says a lot about him and his relationship to these men.

RD's Art - the Shop and the Weasel

 

After RD's military service in the Sixties, a sailor in the Navy's Underwater Demolition Team ELEVEN, he lived in Houston a short while before returning to his folks' place just north of Wellington, Colorado. The transition from the UDT/SEAL Teams to civilian life in the 1960s where the mood of the country was anti-war and anti-warrior, took some time.

 

He and two friends, Larry Johnson and Bill West, built a 30'x50' wood-framed machine shop on RD’s parents' property, applied for a license to run a garage, and started a business. RD and Bill were business partners with Bill bringing to the table his expertise and skill in operating the flame cutter and metal lathe.

 

 

RD recalls a particularly challenging and fun project for Western Scientific Services. He located a WWII military amphibious track vehicle, a Weasel, in the scrap yard at the Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, and brought it back to the Russell Garage. No doubt, it was RD's UDT experience which prompted this solution to Western Scientific's need. Finding the Weasel in a place where WWII vehicles go to die is so 1960s UDT where funds were scarce and cumshaw a skill. UDT 11 Chief Gagliardi was a cumshaw pro.

 

The Weasel needed work as its Studebaker engine was undersized for the use planned for this vehicle in the deep snow of the Colorado Rockies. So RD and Bill replaced the engine with a more powerful Ford engine. I don't imagine that was a quick and simple job.

 

 

 

The Weasel is probably scrap again, up near Leadville, Colorado, a place that often has the reputation of being the coldest place in our nation.

That was over fifty years ago so Western Scientific's weather station has long since been replaced by modern technology. But as long as RD and Bill West are around to tell their stories, and people like me write about creative projects, the Weasel lives.

RD's Art - The Articulated Man

 

This unusual piece was designed to be the pilot of a simulated spacecraft RD built called the Stealth Machine. I will write up the story of that project later but this guy is a stand alone piece of wood sculpture. RD named him The Articulated Man. Made of wood, plywood, nuts, bolts, and glue, he can be positioned in many ways, much like an arthritic human.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We particularly like his hands and fingers which bend in all the joints. Even the thumb moves, as Bella was intrigued to find. I like his feet too.

 

 

 

 

 

Bella recently helped her grandpa loosen some connections and tighten others so that his flexibility was improved. (Not Grandpa's flexibility, but that would have been nice.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RD made this sculpture over several months’ time in late 2003, about the time grandson Lucas was born. The Articulated Man has hung out in the basement these last twenty years and yesterday Lucas gave him a new home in the greenhouse, brought him out into the light of day.

RD's Art - Greeting Cards

 

Some of RD’s artwork is serious work, like the oil paintings and sculptures, but when he draws and illustrates greeting cards his whimsical side is on display.This Christmas card is special to me because he drew our home so well.

 

 

 

 

This card of Congratulations was for Bill and Linda Hartwig when they built their new home in Terry Shores.

 

 

 

 

 

And this Thank You card was for my brother and his wife and son after we visited them in Sierra Vista, Arizona in 1977.

 

 

 

 

 

This last card was for me, and it’s my favorite. Drawn on 8-1/2”x11” paper, 4 separate pages stapled together to create a wedding anniversary card, I really love the sentiment and the way RD depicted himself, really treasure this expression of his love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Thank you, Bob.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In conclusion, RD has made colorfully illustrated party invitations, anniversary cards, letterhead, and announcements about events that bring a smile when received in the mail. The very first announcement I recall is this one for our 1957 Chevy.

RD's Art - Sculpture

 

RD has done quite a lot of sculpting over the years. I remember back in the 1970s when he and friends would sit around talking, listening to music, each with a small ball of beeswax in his hands, warming it until it was malleable then shaping it into small critters, laughing at their efforts, wadding up the wax and starting again.

 

 

His subjects were mostly animals and pretty women, and some he gave away without photographing them but I do have enough photos to know he was prolific with this medium. And so I asked him once, “you must really enjoy sculpting?” and he told me he did enjoy working with wax, the feel, the scent of warm wax, and the immediacy of creating something out of nothing, but it was not his preferred artistic endeavor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite piece was a buffalo, and it might be his favorite, also, for it was the only wax sculpture he had cast in bronze. RD had a friend, Rev. Dr. Alton Tomlin, who was a big game hunter with a beautiful buffalo head in his collection of taxidermied trophies. He invited RD to study it closely as RD created his proud American Bison of the old west in wax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once he was satisfied that the sculpture was complete he took it to a Fort Collins foundry, Joseph Studios, where he worked closely with the owner, Tim Joseph, who used the “lost wax method” of converting a wax sculpture to a fine bronze piece of long-lasting beauty. If you know RD you know he throws his heart and soul into projects, becomes friends with the people he’s working with, participates in each step of the process and that’s just what he did with Tim and his foundry. He came to know Tim’s employees, his family, and other artists who preferred Tim Joseph’s work with their art.

 

 

 

 

Because the cost of bronze is expensive RD only ordered three bronzed buffalo from Tim. He gave one to his UDTRA boat crew officer and western art collector, William T. White, one to his brother, Kenneth C. Russell, and kept one for himself. Tim Joseph saved the mould for many years and I remember when he called RD to ask if he would like to order more before the mould was destroyed. RD declined.

RD's Art - Bone Jewelry

 

One of my favorites of RD’s work with bones is the jewelry he made. It was a long process from raw bone to finished earrings. I remember the drying, sanding, and drilling of the bone which he did in the basement at his worktable. The odor that came up from the basement when he drilled and sanded the bone was very similar, too similar, to the odor that fills my nostrils when my dentist drills my teeth! He said he doesn’t mind that part, in fact, really enjoys choosing the right piece of bone and working with it until it is just the right shape, then rubbing his own special dye into the bone until it is the color he likes.

 

 

 

 

RD’s model for his jewelry was Toby, a young nurse, and a friend. She wears it well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He made the necklace with trade beads he bought at a local Mountain Man shop on College Avenue in Fort Collins. Some of RD’s friends may remember John Messineo who worked at that shop and who also took the photo of RD I used in the previous post about the painting of Lori, where RD is wearing a red bandana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The backdrop for this photo is a trade blanket. His mother designed and sewed him a really wonderful cloak made with a genuine Hudson Bay trade blanket which he wore on a float at one of the Wellington's Well-o-rama parades. It makes a nice background for his jewelry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the earrings RD gave to me. I love the look and the feel of them, just the right weight to remind me I am wearing them and the feel of bone earrings is interesting, cool and slick. When you clack them together they sound like old clay poker chips.

RD's Art - Scrimshaw of Oreo and Nick's Bear

 

Bones became a big interest for RD at some point. He collected them obsessively. I remember a vacation we took in 1976 up to the Pacific Northwest, through Wyoming, Yellowstone, across southern Montana, up into central Washington, our goal The Spokane Indian Reservation at Wellpinit, Washington where I had lived as a child in 1955. All along the way, both going and coming home, RD collected roadkill and threw it into the trunk of our rental car! Our son was eight years old and thought it was pretty cool that his dad often pulled the car over when he spotted small dead animals along the highway, picked them up and showed us what he’d found before he stored them in the trunk.

RD learned to clean the skulls and skeletons of small delicate animals for use in his artwork by letting death beetles (Dermestid Beetles) do the work of eating all the flesh, leaving only bone. He would take the bone outside, lay it on the ground, cover it with a bucket and place a heavy rock on top of the overturned bucket. Sometimes it took several months before the bone was clean.

And he studied the bone density of different animals to decide which ones lent themselves to grinding, drilling, and delicate scrollwork. I remember when he sent me to a meat processing facility in Loveland for some wild game bones for they are denser than domestic animals, better for his purposes.

For RD, the learning process is what it’s all about. Before the Internet, and most of these art projects I am writing about took place from 1975-1995, he read a lot of books, took a few classes at CSU, and experimented with techniques. I love to find his notebooks filled with pages of writing, often illustrated with red pencil drawings. Using animal bones, antlers, and horns RD made jewelry, knife handles, scrimshaw, and more. This blog post is about scrimshaw.

We had a neighbor on Highway 1 who raised longhorn cattle and grew hay. He and RD had a little history together back in the 1960s when they both worked for Bartran Homes. One day when RD went to buy hay this rancher proudly introduced him to his favorite steer named Oreo, a big, handsome Longhorn steer. 

 

 

He assured RD the steer was friendly and could be trusted, but RD, who had years of experience moving his dad's herd from field to field when he was still a boy, recognized a big longhorn steer with an attitude. Sure enough, within a few days he learned that Oreo had tried to hook the rancher with one of those deadly horns and was now headed to the meat locker. RD bought half of that beef and from the flat shoulder bones created two pieces of delicately carved and inked art, forever commemorating Oreo. The year was 1988.

The next piece featured here is the skull of a bear killed by one of RD’s friends, Nick Chenoweth. Nick lived up the Poudre River Canyon at that time and a bear was getting into this trash. RD tells me that Nick was within his rights as a homeowner to shoot and kill the bear but when he told about it at the Charco Broiler over morning coffee the waitresses were not at all happy with Nick. RD took the skull home and cleaned it up and prepared it for the delicate scrimshaw work. It was a wonderful piece and I’m sorry the only photo we have of it does not really do it justice. On the left of the photo we see Nick aiming his rifle at the marauding bear in front of him. 

Nick and RD continued to be friends for years and when RD decided he wanted horses he got three of them from Nick’s herd. Unfortunately, Nick died young with early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

 

 

RD's Art - Oil Painting of Lori

Today I saw a facebook post about a memorial service for one of RD's friends and we talked about this man and what he did with his life. It made me realize that when it's time for a memorial service for RD any slideshow or spoken words will not include many of his passions, his hobbies, and projects. They seem important to me for they say a lot about a person's inner life. So, with his permission, I plan to write a few blogs about RD's interests, those I have photographed over the fifty-two years we've been married, full well knowing they will only give a glimpse into the creative mind of this complicated man.

RD has always been creative but in his early years he had limited resources and little encouragement. As a child he made drawings with pencil, built carts and buggies with wood and metal, but the first painting that I know he created was when he was in the Navy in the 1960s. 

Over the years he has worked in wood, oil, watercolor, charcoal, pastels, wax, bronze, fabric, iron, steel, wire, bone, glass and more. RD's greatest piece of art, in my opinion, is the geodesic home he designed and built for us in the 1970s. We still live in our domehome today. Like most artists, RD has designed inumerable pieces that did not result in a finished item but the design process is a creation of its own and highly rewarding.

My favorite oil painting of RD's he painted in the 1980s. Working with a live model over the course of several months RD brought to life a beautiful painting titled "Lori".

RD's model participated throughout the process with patience and feedback, enjoying the project as much as he.

When RD finished this painting he gave it to Lori.