Alex Glenn-Camden, an Army infantryman injured in Afghanistan, stood next to President George Bush looking at a portrait the former president had painted of him.
Though the Temecula resident has met “43” before at other openings of “Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors,” Glenn-Camden never before had the opportunity to view his portrait while standing one-on-one with Bush as he did Wednesday, March 13, at the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda.
“In the beginning, you’re just kind of speechless,” he said of seeing his own image painted by a president. “It hits you that a president sat there for some time and painted you. It’s almost a little emotional.
“To know he saw something in myself and then to sit there and take his time and paint is extremely humbling.”
Glenn-Camden, who served from 2010 until he was shot in the neck in 2012 while deployed to Afghanistan, along with former Sgt. Daniel Casara, 49, of Ramona, who served in the Army from 1994 to 2008, enjoyed a private tour of the visiting exhibit with the former president Wednesday evening before it opens to the public on Thursday, March 14. Both men are Purple Heart Medal recipients; Casara’s legs were crushed in 2005 in Baghdad when an antitank mine flipped the armored personnel carrier he was riding in, also killing fellow soldiers.
The exhibit includes 66 full-color portraits and a four-panel mural painted by Bush of 98 members of the U.S. military who served the nation since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and whom he has come to know personally since leaving office. The exhibit will be at the Nixon Library through May thanks to a loan from the Ambassador and Mrs. George L. Argyros Collection of Presidential Art at the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
“We are thrilled to welcome the display for its first showing on the West Coast,” said Jim Byron, president and CEO of the Richard Nixon Foundation, adding that…
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