New Mexico artist Duke Sundt was commissioned in July 2007 as the sculptor of the Texas Capitol Vietnam Monument. Organizers selected Sundt – a former rodeo cowboy – because of his military background and his work with large bronze monuments.

 

Sundt’s father was a West Point graduate who served 30 years in the Army. His oldest brother and a first cousin also graduated from West Point and served with the infantry in Vietnam.

 

This is not the first time Sundt has sculpted a piece in honor of war veterans.

 

In 1985, Duke was commissioned by the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell to sculpt five larger-than-life-size bronzes representing World War I (a “doughboy”), World Wart II (an infantry soldier and a B-17 bomber pilot), the Korean War (a tank commander) and the Vietnam War (an infantry soldier).

 

This also is not the first time Sundt has sculpted a piece in Texas.

 

For the University of Texas at Austin, Sundt produced a bronze monument commemorating the significance and contribution of the Texas Longhorn. The monument depicts a larger-than-life Longhorn steer placed on a bronze base incorporating a bas-relief scene of a Texas Longhorn trail drive.

 

Between now and May 2010, Sundt will be finishing a scale model of the sculpture, fashioning clay versions of the life-size figures and base and overseeing transformation of the clay pieces into the bronze and granite monument.