
DATE: Monday, September 1, 1997             TAG: 9708300052

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JENNIFER JACOBSON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  106 lines

A CREATIVE CORPS FROM ART TO MUSIC TO POETRY, VETS FIND THEIR TALENTS MARCH ON, UNITING THEM AND HELPING OTHERS.

WHEN EARL G. JONES hears the whir of a helicopter, his mind flashes back to images of dead bodies piled in military trucks.

He tenses at the buzz of low-flying airplanes, which remind him of bombs blazing across a smoky Saigon sky.

The 54-year-old Hampton resident with the graying mustache and the troubled brown eyes is a Vietnam veteran.

He's found only one thing that can quell the nightmares of a bloody conflict that happened decades ago - art. Jones, who retired from a post-military career as a high school art teacher, is a member of a Norfolk group called Artistic American Veterans. The 3-year-old group, with a membership of 25 vets and active-duty soldiers, exhibits paintings, poetry and sculptures in eight shows each year.

Some of the members are musicians and give concerts. About a third of them are female.

In May, some of the members put on a benefit concert for children living on the Fort Eustis Army base.

Ten members are preparing for a Sept. 18 variety show for Congress in Washington, D.C. Some of them will sing; others will exhibit acrylic, oil and watercolor paintings. One will deliver a comedy routine.

``As an organization, we're letting people know that we have veterans who are very talented,'' said Tyrone G. McDonald, the group's founder and a retired Army private. ``People need to know that there's another side to these men.''

The group also sings and exhibits art at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Hampton and works with the hospital's recreation therapy department to put on a talent show for patients.

``Veterans entertaining veterans,'' McDonald said. ``That's our main goal.''

With his black suspenders, a floral tie and a sparkling stud in his left ear, McDonald doesn't seem to harbor bad memories of his Vietnam experience. However, McDonald, now 46, knows the difficulties of coming home from war. He was only 18 years old when he served in Vietnam. He painted and wrote poetry to cope.

``It was like a release for me,'' he said. ``It was a form of rehabilitation, therapy, self-help, and that's what it is to a lot of veterans.''

Like Jones.

On Jan. 1, 1966, his first day in Vietnam, Jones' division was ambushed, and 20 men were killed.

``I asked where God was,'' Jones said. ``And all along he was with me and the ones that returned.''

Artistic since he was a boy, Jones said his talent is a God-given gift.

He used that creative skill as a patient last year in the Hampton VA hospital, where he entered his oil paintings in the talent show co-sponsored by the Artistic American Veterans.

He won first place.

McDonald contacted him about his work, and Jones joined the group. He's been with it ever since.

The group's only membership requirement is past or present military service. There are no dues.

McDonald's idea for the organization came from seeing ``Platoon,'' a film about the Vietnam War. He thought its portrayal of soldiers as war machines was one-sided.

He knew other veterans like himself were writing poetry and participating in the arts. He just had to find them.

He began recruiting veterans in Virginia Beach in 1994. He visited soldier-artists in their homes to share military stories and talk about the art group he wanted to form. McDonald said it took a while to build vets' interest.

He met with local congressmen Owen Pickett, Norman Sisisky and Robert C. Scott, hoping they would help him get the word out.

Three years later, the group is well enough established that it even has an office, a small room on Bute Street rented from one of the members.

Now, Jimmy S. Harrison doesn't have to go to a friend's house to sing anymore.

The 53-year-old Air Force veteran lives in a Virginia Beach apartment complex where he can't belt out his favorite tunes - like the Righteous Brothers ``Unchained Melody'' or Barry Manilow's ``I Can't Smile Without You'' - without disturbing the neighbors.

``They don't appreciate me singing at the top of my lungs at two in the morning,'' he said.

The freedom to be creative is what McDonald hopes his group continues to promote.

``We're going to find some Van Goghs and Monets,'' he said. ``You'd be surprised what's going to come out of here.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN

The Virginian-Pilot

Earl Jones...

GARY C. KNAPP / The Virginian-Pilot

Margaret ``Maggie'' Niles, a member of the Artistic American

Veterans, paints on an egg.

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED:

The Artistic American Veterans do not have specific meeting

times, and there are no membership dues. The only requirement is