Cody's Harry Jackson got his start as Marine combat artist

Great article in today's New York Times about the U.S. Marines' combat artists' program. During World War II, the Marines has 70 combat artists and today only one remains, Sgt. Kristopher J. Battles.

One of those World War II Marine combat artists was Harry Jackson of Cody. At 18 in 1942, he was the youngest of them all. The slide show accompanying the NYT article shows one of Harry paintings. Here's the caption:

"From World War II there's a vigorously worked scene of men engaged in combat on Tarawa, painted by Harry Jackson, later an Abstract Expressionist and today a hugely successful Western painter."

View Harry's painting of the battle of Tarawa -- and the rest of the slide show -- at http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/07/14/arts/design/20100718-MARINES-8.html. The painting is on exhibit at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle, Virginia.

Harry was awarded a Wyoming Arts Council Governor's Arts Award in 1990. Read about his very colorful life in his equally colorful autobiography at www.harryjackson.com/biography.cfm