The above mural is being created on a bunker wall in Afghanistan by Nathan Denryter, an art teacher at Mayfield and Seaton elementary schools and a member of the United States Air Force. Denryter has been in Afghanistan since September working as a airplane mechanic. LCS students gave him an emotional send-off before his tour began.

Here’s what Denryter wrote about the mural in his blog, Dispatches from Mr. D:

When I am at work during the little down time we have, I have been painting a second mural on the bunker wall. I got the idea from the door art of one of our A-10’s. On almost all the ladder doors, the inside of the door has some type of art. The crew chief gets to decide what goes there. So one of the crew chiefs I work with approached me and asked if I would paint his door art on the bunker as a big mural. I said yes, but changed it a little bit, made it much scarier than it was. Everyone is excited to see it finished. There are people that come by everyday to see the progress that I have made. It is nice to be able to share my talent with others. It can be the little things like this that can help boost morale for people.