“Homecoming,” a PPA Loan Collection image, was created by Mark McCall, of Lubbock, Texas. According to Mark, the image was inspired by a few things… one of which was the story of Pat Tillman, professional football player, who gave up a lucrative career in professional football to serve in the US Army 2nd Ranger Battalion. Tillman fell to friendly fire during the fog of the Afghanistan war in 2004. The second inspiration was an image Mark had seen of a soldier’s travel coffin being prepped for unloading from an aircraft cargo hold while other travelers peered on through the windows of the plane. “I have a funeral director in my family. So I approached him with the idea for the image. I’d photographed this Marine’s wedding a few years before and, even though he was no longer in the military, he looked young enough to fit the part and the uniform still fit.” The funeral home supplied the flag and coffin. In the role of the grieving parents were some local florists that Mark had worked with often at weddings. “I arrived early to set up the lighting so that it would be ready when the models arrived. Ten minutes later, we had the image,” Mark explains. A print of the image hangs in the offices of the funeral home, a memorial to all of those who did not make it home.
