Casper-based artist Chris Navarro’s 18th bronze sculpture in Wyoming will be one that hits close to the heart for the son and brother of military veterans.
The 70-year-old artist has been selected by the Wyoming Military Department to create a bronze sculpture honoring the service and commitment of modern-day soldiers that will be unveiled on Sept. 11 this year.
“I really enjoy doing military memorials and monuments,” he said. “I’ve done several of them now and it’s really an honor to do it.”
The request called for a sculpture that would portray a soldier in full battle gear, capturing the emotion of grief, patriotism, and sacrifice of the military, and offer families and visitors to the Oregon Trail State Veterans Cemetery in Evansville a place of remembrance and reflection.
Navarro said he listened to what officials wanted, added some of his own interpretation and came up with a bronze sculpture called “Fallen Comrade.”
“They wanted a soldier holding a rifle and kneeling down, his hand on the other one, so I kind of followed those guidelines,” he said. “I went out there with a director and he got me a uniform with everything that they wanted in the sculpture. They borrowed it from the (Wyoming) National Guard.”
Navarro said he took the equipment and uniform and used a live model wearing the uniform with a protective vest, and two helmets, one at the model’s feet and the other on top of an M4 that is anchored in extra combat boots.
He captured the model in the pose he wanted with various photos that provided a reference during his sculpting process, and “that’s how the job came about.”
The scene depicts the “Battle Cross” or “Soldier’s Cross” that includes a soldier’s rifle, boots, and helmet as a memorial marker on the battlefield or camp where someone who gave their life in battle.
“Then they droop his dog tags over them,” Navarro said. “It’s kind of a makeshift cross.”
Navarro said his sculpture represents a modern warrior kneeling with his hand on his comrade’s helmet that caps the Battle Cross as he prays over the loss.
Having the actual items to depict the image helped in the process, he said.
Family Ties
Known for his art portraying people in the West, Navarro is the son of a 30-year career U.S. Air Force officer who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. His three brothers also served in the military as aviators — one a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.
“I don’t come from a family of ranchers and cowboys like a lot of people think,” he said. “I come from a family of military aviators, basically.”
Navarro has a bronze maquette or table-top version of the monument sculpture in his Sedona, Arizona gallery. It is 15 1/2 inches high and 22 inches long. The monument itself will be 125% larger than life size. It is set to be cast at the Eagle Bronze foundry in Lander.
The memorial will be about 4 1/2 feet tall and about 8 feet long. Navarro said instead of being mounted on a pedestal like most of his sculptures, it is going to be installed at the cemetery where four crosswalks come together.
“So, it’s going to be a piece that people are going to be able to come up, put their arm around, kneel with it or interact with it,” he said. “A lot of monumental bronze you can’t walk around them and touch them, but this one is going to be that way.”
The full-size sculpture is a little different than the maquette in that Navarro designed the dog tags to be hanging down off the full-size version. Instead of a name on the tags, there will be a message inscribed on them.
“I have that saying, ‘All gave some. Some gave all,’” he said.
The sculpture is the latest commissioned work that Navarro has created for a military theme.
Other monuments include:
A 1997 bronze in Aspen, Colorado honoring the 10th Mountain Division veterans of World War II who fought on skis from 1943 -1945.
A 2007 10-foot bronze in Cheyenne, Wyoming called “Buffalo Soldier.”
A 2015 bronze of a 6-foot Falcon called “Bolt From The Blue” that is at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A 2018 bronze called “The Messenger” that depicts a soldier on horseback riding to get reinforcements for the Alamo at the Alamo Trail in San Antonio, Texas.
A 2025 bronze of a P-51 Mustang fighter plane called “Mustang Warrior” honoring a World War II Wyoming pilot at Shively Field in Saratoga, Wyoming.
Representatives from the Oregon Trail State Veterans Cemetery and Wyoming Military Department declined to comment on the project.
More information will be available this summer, a spokesman said.
Navarro said the full-size bronze is set to be completed by the end of July so that it can be installed and prepared for unveiling at the 25th anniversary of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York.
“It’s a pretty moving sculpture, really. I’m proud of it,” Navarro said. “I have the best job in the world.”
Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
