Vietnam Veteran Tribute to Fallen and Grieving Famiies

Vietnam War Veteran Provides Grieving Military Families Comfort by Sketching Fallen Soldiers
PEOPLE
BY DIANE HERBST
POSTED ON JULY 6, 2017

Michael Reagan was a Marine during the Vietnam War and weeks away from coming home in 1968 when he and his unit were attacked with rockets. The strike hit a close friend, whom Mike cradled in his arms as he was dying.

Michael Reagan and some of the celebrity portraits he drew COURTESY MICHAEL REAGAN

“At the last second he looked at me and said, ‘Mike I just want to go home’ and he died,” recalls Reagan of that heartbreaking moment. “I see his face every day.”

When Reagan returned home grateful to be alive, “I knew I had a debt,” he tells PEOPLE.

Reagan, an artist who worked for the University of Washington, found a way to begin repaying that debt. He drew signed portraits of the biggest celebrities in the world that were auctioned off at charity events benefitting children and cancer research, raising over $10 million dollars for the nonprofits.
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