COLUMBUS, Ohio — Every time Sara Duvall sees the Eyes of Freedom, she has a conversation with her son in the life-size portrait that stands before her.
“Hey baby, how you doing,” Duvall lightly chuckles as the face of Lance Corporal Aaron Reed stares back at her. “I know he’s doing well,” says the mother who lost her son in 2005.
Reed was among the 22 Marines and one Navy Corpsman who were killed in action between May and August of 2005. They were all assigned to Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines. The Eyes of Freedom is a traveling memorial of murals that pays tribute to their sacrifice.
“First thing I would say to them was, I hope that all of us have lived a life that’s worthy of their sacrifice,” said Jason Vasquez, who deployed to Iraq in 2005 with Lima Company as a team leader.
In April 2024, Vasquez joined other Lima Company families for a private presentation of the Eyes of Freedom painting where the artist who created it made a special announcement.
“I'm inspired to create an immersive, transformative journey into the heart of service and sacrifice through the eyes of these men, their families, their fellow Marines,” said Anita Miller, of Worthington. “To create a journey for civilians and veterans alike to be able to walk in their footsteps."
Miller told 10TV that she always knew the mission behind the Eyes of Freedom was unfinished, even after the exhibit added a second component years later called The Silent Battle. It is a life-sized bronze sculpture of a grieving warrior cradling the dog tag of his friend.
“I got the initial vision of the Eyes of Freedom back in 2005. And I didn’t get another one until this last October when I woke up with the word in my head that said ‘immersive’ and that was it,” Miller said.
Since the end of 2023, Miller has found a team of people committed to bringing the next phase into reality. It will include a 360-degree immersive dome theater showing a 12-minute film called “The Warriors Journey.” It will also have a room where people can write down what the word “service" means to them.
“I think it’s time to tell the flipside of that coin from sacrifice, which is service,” said Vasquez. “It goes beyond the military service. It goes to things that we choose to do in our community every day to be a part of building our country, building our communities to be an active participant and not just a consumer of it.”
Miller says the new immersive component will allow visitors to walk in the footsteps of the men of Lima Company in an effort to inspire, educate and honor the men who paid the ultimate price, as well as all those who surrounded them.
“So many people when they come in, and they see the paintings and they see Silent Battle, they want to know stories, they want to know well, 'how did these paintings come about?' 'What do the families feel?' 'What about this guy?' 'Why is he wearing a, you know, a roll of tape on his shirt,' you know, all these questions that we have,” said Miller while describing the unique reaction of past visitors.
Duvall says her son always wanted to be a Marine and to serve. As a former teacher, she hopes the lesson visitors walk away with will include a deep sense of gratitude.
“I want them to walk with the idea that these men are not lost in vain,” she said. “No person who has ever served and lost their life has lost their life in vain. They have done what they wanted to do and they have served courageously.”