“Over that time, the book would morph from a volume of paintings … into something bigger, and far more powerful.”
IN 2006, 82-year-old painter and former United States Marine Corps artist-in-residence Col. Charles Waterhouse set out to commit to canvas U.S. Marines and Navy corpsmen engaged in the acts for which they were awarded the Medal of Honor.
At the time of his death seven years later in 2013, Waterhouse had completed over 332 paintings and portraits; yet he died believing that he’d failed. Despite his best efforts he’d been forced leave some men behind.
Waterhouse gifted the entire Medal of Honor series to the Marine Corps, but it was his final wish that they be published in one volume. I promised to make that happen. Jane Waterhouse was the author of four critically acclaimed novels, but she’d never undertaken a project like this.
“I’m not a military historian or strategist. I’ve never seen combat,” she said. “What’s more, I didn’t really share my father’s vision of what this book should be.”
Her father had envisioned a collection of Medal of Honor paintings, accompanied by the official citations, but his author daughter felt the citations only recorded the bare facts. They didn’t tell the full story.
She was driven to learn all she could about these men. Who were they? Where did they come from? What in their early beginnings prepared them do what they did? Finding the answers to those questions would consume Jane Waterhouse’s life for the next five years. Over that time, the book would morph from a volume of paintings … into something bigger, and far more powerful, than she ever imagined when making that deathbed promise to her father.
Valor in Action: The Medal of Honor Paintings of Colonel Charles Waterhouse, published by Schiffer Military is a 384-page, premium collectible, containing hundreds of stunning, never-before-seen, full color illustrations of Medal of Honor actions from the Civil War to Afghanistan. It contains true stories of 225 amazing American heroes who went above and beyond the call of duty… as portrayed by one tenacious artist who—armed only with a paintbrush, to his dying breath—sought to capture their heroic actions on canvas at the very moment they occurred.
In the opening tribute, Waterhouse charts her father’s journey from young Marine on Iwo Jima in World War II, through his illustrious career as an illustrator and Marine Corps artist-in-residence, to his final mission to paint as many of the Medal of Honor recipients as humanly possible. But the preponderance of the book is focused on a diverse group of brave men who embody the best qualities of humanity: honor, courage, commitment, resourcefulness, loyalty, endurance and selflessness—qualities striven for by many, but attained only by a select few who are willing to take a stand, defy the odds, and go above and beyond.
Some of these recipients have had volumes written about them. Others have been forgotten, even in their hometowns. Drawing upon her skills as a storyteller, author Waterhouse brings them all to life, memorializing their valiant actions against the vivid backdrop of the most comprehensive series of Medal of Honor paintings ever created by a single artist.
“Every once in a while,” praised one reviewer, “a literary work of both historical importance and graphic splendor appears. Such is Valor in Action…”(U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings Magazine)
Click on the images below to see some of the artwork appearing in Valor in Action: The Medal of Honor Paintings of Colonel Charles Waterhouse.
