As 10 members of the Marine Reserve unit Lima Company prepare to return to Iraq, the company'sfallen Marines and Navy corpsman are being honored through art.
Columbus-based Lima Company made national headlines three years ago after 23 of its members --17 of whom were from Ohio -- died during a tour in Iraq, 10TV's Lindsey Seavert reported.
The unit suffered more casualties than any other U.S. company serving in Iraq.
SLIDESHOW: Miller's Portraits | VIDEO: Watch 10TV'sReport
With that in mind, Westerville artist Anita Miller took her vision to canvas and honored thefallen men.
Miller said it was a dream that inspired to her to paint life-sized portraits of the fallenmembers of Lima Company.
"I saw this installation of these paintings, of life-sized portraits of all the men," Millersaid, "standing together all interacting with each other."
According to Miller, in her vision, the paintings were on display inside the OhioStatehouse.
After building a two-story room where she could paint, Miller worked on the portraits for twoyears.
"The power of this memorial is not going to be due to the skill of me," Miller said. "It willbe due to the gift that they gave."
"They are beautiful faces," Miller said, "and the more I paint them the more beautiful theybecome."
Parents of the fallen Marines were among the first to see the finished portraits in Miller’sstudio.
"It's like he's here," said Jane Erdy, whose son, Nicholas, died in Iraq. "It just looks somuch like him and he's looking right at us."
"He's happy there," Erdy said.
On Friday, nearly 2,000 people waited outside the Ohio Statehouse for the unveilingof the Lima Company memorial.
The public showing came hours after Gov. Ted Strickland, Mayor Coleman and John Glenn joinedthe fallen Marines’ families for a first look at the memorial inside the Statehouse Rotunda.
In November, the portraits will tour the state, and eventually the country.
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