Union County Freedom Rock: A collage of honor

An eagle with the American flag, soldiers boarding the train at Creston Depot, plumes of smoke from the attack at Pearl Harbor and helicopters flying over a dense, green jungle.

With each stroke of his brush, Ray “Bubba” Sorensen brought to life scenes from five different eras of war in honor of all veterans who have served their country as the next installment of his Freedom Rock Tour.

Sorensen unveiled the Union County Freedom Rock — his 25th completed project — from the protection of a red tent Monday, well ahead of the projected completion date in 2015.

“With Creston and Le Claire ... they were surprised I could squeeze them in,” Sorensen said. “I was looking at what the weather was looking like and I said as long as Mother Nature doesn’t throw us any huge curveballs and you guys can put up a tent with some heat, I didn’t see why we couldn’t squeeze them in.”

Denny Abel, quartermaster for the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 1797, said the site was ready for Sorensen to start painting the rock early and the commission worked with him to design the rock.

The commission included Bob Jungst, Eric Shawler, Lisa Downing, Charlie Jackson and Terry Loomis.

The design

The Union County Freedom Rock ties together imagery from World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the War on Terror.

“I don’t want it to look like clip art just threw up on it,” Sorensen said. “That is the struggle, taking such different eras and such different looking things and trying to make them as one.”

Sorensen uses similar elements like the color of the sky or the smoke from the train at the Creston Depot flowing into the smoke from the Pearl Harbor scene to create a collage.

“The front (south side) was put together by the VFW,” Abel said. “It depicts an eagle holding a flag and the MIA/POW patch. At the bottom it says ‘Freedom is not free.’”

Sorensen said while most of the rocks on the tour have similar themes, he tries to add local history and flare to the design.

“Most of them have something that either ties to the county, the towns in the county or a specific veteran in that county,” Sorensen said.

The north side of the rock features the Rainbow Division boarding a train at the Creston Depot during World War I. Abel said they did all of their training in Creston before leaving for the war.

The scene is bordered by red poppies, another symbol from the WWI era.

“The French in World War I buried the dead in poppy fields, so the red poppies stand for the blood that was shed in World War I,” Abel said.

The paint Sorensen uses is a silicate, which he described as “liquid rock.”

“They use this paint in tropical and arctic conditions,” Sorensen said. “We get some cold weather and some hot weather in Iowa, but it is usually not arctic and tropical.”

While the rock may physically weather and have small parts chip away, the paint is unaffected by UV light and weather, so minimal maintenance will be required for the rock.

“This has been a challenging rock,” Sorensen said. “It is coarse, but that is part of its character, too.”

The rock — donated by the family of Dr. Robert Kuhl — is 8-feet long by 8-feet tall by 5-feet wide.

Sorensen said it was getting late in the year to paint the Union County Freedom Rock, but the red tent and heaters helped keep the temperature above 50 degrees so the paint could cure properly. It also provided a wind block to make working conditions more favorable.

“The tour was technically over two rocks ago, so it is getting the the point where I need to be home,” Sorensen said. “You know at the end of the (half marathon) race when you have run 12 miles and you know you just have to focus a little more, I am to that point.”

Checking in

Sorensen said being close to home with two small children and a wife he has been away from for most of the summer extended his typical time frame of completing a rock.

But being born in Creston and living in Greenfield added some importance to make the Union County Freedom Rock look special.

He was rarely alone while painting. Intrigued veterans and visitors consistently peaked into the tent to watch Sorensen work and get a preview of the design.

“It is very typical for people to stop in and visit, that does not change across the state,” Sorensen said.

Trinity Lutheran Church donated five, 20-foot flag poles for all five military flags to be installed at the site.

A dedication ceremony is planned for 10:30 a.m. Nov. 11 at the rock. In case of inclement weather, the ceremony will be moved to Creston High School gymnasium.

“Anybody that goes by there that is interested in any type of history or veterans, I feel, will stop and look,” Abel said. “While they are there, there is the visitor center during the summer that they can go in and check out.”

To see the other completed projects on Sorensen's Freedom Rock Tour, visit www.thefreedomrock.com.