What do Abraham Lincoln, Stonehenge, and Kim Kardashian all have in common? They've each been recreated in rock sculpture by Gunnery Sgt. Gregory Miller, a San Diego-based Marine currently stationed in Afghanistan.
Miller, a maintenance controller with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 165, uses the rocks and gravel he finds scattered around Camp Bastion as his medium, to recreate different historical and pop culture icons in stone sculpture.
Miller told Regional Command Southwest public affairs that he builds a sculpture in front of each of his neighbor's rooms - whether it be the Eiffel Tower or the Marine Corps’ eagle, globe and anchor - as a way of brightening everyone's day:
“I kind of made [life] comfortable for them. It definitely gives them a morale boost. There are so many people who go through here just to check it out. It brings them back.”
Miller takes requests from his fellow Marines. "Commissioned" sculptures include the Starship Enterprise, Kim Kardashian, a motorcycle, and a farm tractor.
He concedes that his "tinkering" benefits him as much as his comrades:
“It’s kind of therapeutic. You’re just thinking, ‘I’m going to get this. I’m going to get this.” I just keep putting it together until I’m finally finished. Then I take a step back and think, ‘I did it.’
“When you start building something from nothing … It gives you a great sense of accomplishment. I’ve trailed through every inch of this [living area], the mountains over there, and almost halfway around the flight line … it just feels healthy.”
