“I really like to paint military rocks, eagles, U.S.A. rocks. I’m proud of my country. I love my country. One time this lady wanted me to paint a picture of a tattoo. It was a military scene with a flag and these soldiers shaded in. I thought, OK, tattoos are straight-line work, so it should be pretty easy. When I looked at the tattoo more closely, the bottom had these tombstones all lined up. And it almost killed me to paint that. I just had a very emotional, really hard time painting it.

“When I finished, the lady who ordered it never came to get it. So I kept it for a long time. Then we did a show over in Crosby, and they were having a gun show the same day. There were a lot of people interested in the military. So this one guy came over and said, ‘How much do you want for that rock?’ I told him $20 is usually what I charge for the big ones like that. He gave me $50 and said, ‘Thank you very much.’ He loved that rock. He said, ‘I’m going to keep it forever.’ I went back over to the gun show later, and he had a display. That rock was showcased on his table. I told him how difficult it had been for me to paint it.

“That’s one that just really resonates with me, that stays with me. But I was so happy he ended up with it. Because I think these rocks really find where they need to go. I mean, that woman wanted the rock at first. But I guess it just wasn’t her rock. It was his rock. It ended up where it needed to be.

“I think a lot of times, when people find these rocks that we hide, the messages we paint on them are really meant just for them. And that’s pretty cool.”

— Vickie Sims

She belongs to the Baytown Rocks group, which helped launch the local rock-painting craze. You can find some of her creations there, as well as on her Vickie’s Rocks page.

Related:

• Painted rocks help build human connection

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“When my ex-husband and I were deployed the first time to Afghanistan, my kids were separated. My oldest daughter stayed with my family and the twins were with his family. So they don’t have that normal sister bond. They didn’t really get a chance to know each other. There’s no real foundation there.

“That’s something I’m trying to develop. It’s challenging, since they live apart. The twins are with their father and his fiancé. They’re good people, and they have a stable home. My oldest wants to stay with me. But I’m still working on our relationship.

“When she was younger, I couldn’t even go to the store without her freaking out about me leaving. And I understand that. I had deployed twice. And even though she was only a few years old, she remembered. So with her, I think it’s more abandonment type issues that I’m working on. You know, just being there for her and loving her.

“What I tell my daughters is, ‘Your mother is strong.’ Dealing with the effects of war, time away from my children and a broken marriage taught me to be so strong. Honestly, I feel like nothing can break me. I tell them that they have that kind of strength coursing through their veins, too. So don’t back down from anything or anybody. Stand firm in your beliefs, and you’re going to succeed and get far in life.”

— Erica Salazar

After serving as an intelligence analyst in the Army, Erica earned a bachelor’s degree in national security studies. At the moment, she is teaching English as a second language online to children in China.

Related:

• Mom rebuilding relationships after military career

• A voice for women who endure abuse in the military

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“A friend of mine, he graduated high school a year before I did. He came up to school one day and said, ‘They’re fixin’ to draft me. Let’s go and join something.’

“There were four of us who went to the Naval Reserve place in Houston. We all signed up for submarines and took their knowledge test. But because my friend walked in his sleep, the Navy wouldn’t take him.

“So instead, he went and joined the Air Force. They were looking for somebody to be a mess cook for General (Curtis) LeMay, who was head of the Air Force back in that time, the whole works. After he took their test, they came over to Crosby to check out everything about him. He passed and they sent him straight up there to Washington.

“He ended up staying in the Pentagon for four years and never did a darn thing except get up in the morning and fix LeMay’s breakfast. That was all he did, while we were down in those submarines.”

— Robert Gregory

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“I was in the Army, active duty in the First Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas, for five years. I did two tours over in Iraq as a Bradley Fighting Vehicle weapons specialist.

“I saw plenty of action. Lots of bad stuff when you’re on patrols doing house raids. Training is good and all. It teaches you how to do things, systematically. But it’s much different running through a house with another soldier who you know is not going to shoot you during training versus running through a house with someone else who has an AK who is trying to shoot you.”

What was the worst situation you were in?
“I got blown up. It was the usual, a convoy IED. It knocked the vehicle far enough that it jarred out my left shoulder. They had to reconstruct it. Nothing too bad, comparatively. I had surgery about three years ago. I’ll let you know when the recovery time is over.”

— James

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“I’m attending college on a military veterans scholarship through my stepfather. He was on a battleship in the U.S. Navy and served in Operation Desert Storm.

“He’s a disabled veteran. He has bad muscular problems in his back because he’s 6-foot-7 and he had to sleep in those little bunks. He also has bad hearing caused by the canons on the ship. Since we’ve been together as a family, I’ve seen his health go downhill. It’s tough because he’s a very hard-working, good man, and he’d do anything for my mother and me.”

How meaningful is the scholarship?
“It’s awesome. I probably wouldn’t be here without it. I’m going to be the only person in my mom’s, my real dad’s or my stepfather’s family who will earn a college degree. I guess a little bit of pressure comes with that, but I think I’m up for the challenge.”

— Amanda Davis

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“I served in Vietnam in ’69 and ’70, in the 101st Airborne artillery unit. It was an experience. Then the company I worked for put me on medical disability retirement.

“The VA says my problems come from Agent Orange, but I don’t know. I’ve got diabetes and that diabetic neuropathy, nerve deterioration. My eyesight isn’t real good, either, because I’m seeing double right now. I can look out here and see two of every vehicle.

“I’m just doing the best I can. I’ve got an appointment at the VA where they’re going to do an MRI and everything on my head to see what’s wrong. Ain’t going to find nothing up there, though.”

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“The best job I ever had was in the ‘80s up in Virginia, working as a sheet metal mechanic in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. It’s where they build, remodel and repair the Navy’s ships.

“Being a Vietnam War-era veteran, I was proud to help service the fleet and keep the Navy’s surface crafts and submarines going. The subs were the most interesting to work on. It was really tight quarters, but their overall size was pretty impressive when you got a close-up view of them in dry dock.”

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“We lived in a two-bedroom house, so my dad told us three boys, ‘When you graduate from high school, you’re out of here.’ I joined the Navy and was a Vietnam veteran, working on an aircraft carrier. I helped guide the planes aboard ship and so forth. We flew 10,000 sorties.

“In the movie ‘We Were Soldiers’ with Mel Gibson, we were the ones who actually saved them. All our planes were fighting the Vietnamese to let them get out (at the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965). They portrayed everything pretty accurately.”

— Larry Moravits

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