WEATHER
Enlisting in the U.S. Army was not a decision that came lightly to Ezra Suko. In early February, the 26-year-old painter signed up for a three-year tour in the infantry with his 19-year-old brother, Elijah. As Suko tells it, he had been considering entering the military since August 2005. That was when his brother-in-law, Gabe DeRoo, was killed while serving in Iraq.
“The way he lived … he was an inspiration to us; definitely an inspiration,” Suko said. “I never thought of going in to the military before (his death).”
For most of his life, Suko did not see himself as the kind of man who would fight a war. A son of Discovery Baptist Church Pastor Mark Suko and a painter since he was 14, he described himself as “not the type to start conflicts.”
Generally quiet and shy, he spent his days painting landscapes from Gig Harbor, where he was born and raised with his seven siblings.
That quiet life changed 1 1/2 years ago, when Iraqi insurgents shot and killed DeRoo, a Stryker infantryman from Fort Lewis. DeRoo, who was married to Suko’s younger sister, Hannah, joined the Army in 2003 and was serving his second tour in Iraq when he was killed.
Suko and DeRoo were close — they were only a month apart in age and were “very good friends,” according to Suko’s mother, Nancy.
At the time, DeRoo had already been to Iraq and returned home unharmed. The family assumed his second tour would be the same as the first.
His death affected Suko profoundly.
“It was a big shock. None of us saw it coming,” Suko said.
The result led Suko to consider following in his brother-in-law’s footsteps.
But deciding to join the Army meant a serious career shift: At 26, Suko had already established himself as an artist, showing and selling his oil and acrylic paintings at galleries in Gig Harbor and Port Orchard. He has won awards from the locally based Peninsula Art League and from Wyoming’s Arts for the Park Foundation.
Bill Fogerty, owner of Waters Edge Gallery & Framery in Gig Harbor, has been selling Suko’s paintings for about four years. In that time, Fogerty has grown close to Suko and his family, describing him as “a joy to work with” and “pure.”
He knows that Suko’s artwork is well-respected in the local art community.
“When I’d ask other artists what they thought of Ezra, they’d say, ‘He’s so young, and he shouldn’t be so good so young,’ ” Fogerty said.
Suko has recently gained national recognition for his art. In January, just one month before joining the Army, he was awarded the Sally K. Smith Juror’s Award from PaintAmerica Top 100, a competition for paintings depicting scenes from any of the 50 states.
His painting of “Twilight on the Pacific” — a scene of waves crashing on the beach, painted in vibrant blue and purple hues — took the prize.
Despite the award, Suko did not reconsider joining the Army, except for “half a second of doubt.”
He feels that serving his country is a necessity, a decision he said he won’t regret making.
“If I continue on with my career, I would look back and think ‘I should have gone in, when I had the chance,’ ” he said. “I would not be able to live with myself if I didn’t do it.”
Making the decision was easier for Suko’s younger brother, Elijah Suko, who had considered joining the Army since his junior year at Gig Harbor High School. Elijah had even hoped to job shadow DeRoo in order to learn more about military service.
“It was basically because of him, and because I had a first-hand idea of what the military was,” Elijah said about why he is joining the Army.
While DeRoo’s death was a motivating factor for Elijah as well, it was a car accident while on his way to work a few months ago that finally convinced him to take the leap.
“I thought, ‘I could go into the Army and possibly die, or I could die here on the way to work,” said Elijah, the youngest of the Suko family’s eight children. “You can’t control your life, so just do what you can and God will take care of you.”
Both Elijah and Ezra Suko agreed that joining the Army together will ease the transition in basic training — and eventually combat. The two brothers will undergo basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., when they leave for service on Thursday.
Although two of her sons could potentially be risking their lives at war, Nancy Suko said she is proud of their decision. She admitted that the heartache is “still fresh” from her son-in-law’s death in 2005, but she would feel selfish if she prevented her sons from joining the Army in order to protect herself from further emotional pain.
“Definitely, they’re risking their lives, and I could lose one or both of them, but then I think that our country is worth fighting for,” she said. “Thousands and thousands of men have died to give us what we have. I want to be willing to give my boys, too.”
Nancy was surprised at Ezra’s decision to join the Army, because she thinks of her son as an artist, not a soldier.
“At 26, I thought he had his life lined out,” she said, adding that she believes he will continue with his art, even while in the service.
Ezra Suko plans to keep up with his trade: He has packed his sketchbook and art supplies to take with him to Fort Benning. He thinks that life in the military will give him more material to draw from artistically, citing role model Sanford Robinson Gifford, a Civil War soldier who later become a leading member of the Hudson River School — the 19th century artistic movement of landscape painters.
“I would hope that it would broaden my views of the world,” Suko said. “Part of an artist’s duty is to explore life.”
Suko points out that he can return to his artwork at any time, and he plans to continue his career after his three years in the Army are over.
Although he admits he is afraid to see combat, he firmly believes that joining the military is an opportunity he can’t miss.
“It scares me, but I just gotta do it anyway,” he said. “If I became a great artist but not a better person, I would be a failure.”
The Suko family agrees that DeRoo would have supported his brother-in-law’s decision.
“Gabe was the kind of person whose thoughts were about other people,” Nancy Suko said. “I think he would have been supportive enough to say, ‘Don’t worry about yourself. Think about the other people you’re protecting.’”
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