‘Above and beyond the call of duty’

WINFIELD — The Henry County Freedom Rock, located on the corner of Locust and Pine streets on the Winfield square, is the 96th edition in the more than 100-rock journey muralist and painter Ray “Bubba” Sorensen is creating in Iowa and surrounding states to memorialize military service in the communities where the rocks are.

Henry County’s rock is memorializing the area’s strong link to Medal of Honor recipients, according to Sorensen, and the 224th Brigade Engineer Battalion of the Iowa Army National Guard that is from the Mt. Pleasant area.

The rock has strong ties to the Medal of Honor with the last part of the medal citation displayed on the front side of the rock, “Above and beyond the call of duty.”

The Medal of Honor flag was created by an Iowan.

The rock memorialized Brigadier Gen. Frank Garretson, who is from Henry County. Garretson was a Navy Cross recipient and a World War II general.

Sorensen has the goal of painting a freedom rock in all 99 counties in Iowa and has even began to branch out to other states like Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Sorensen started the project back in 1999 when he painted the original freedom rock that currently sits in his hometown of Greenfield.

Sorensen wanted to find a different way to thank veterans, “Thanking our veterans, one painting at a time.”

“The Henry County Freedom Rock committee and I decided that we wanted to stay close to the history of the area with the engineers and Medal of Honor recipient,” Sorensen said.

Sorensen painted his first Freedom Rock in 1999, a rock he repaints every year as a tribute to veterans. He said he started his Freedom Rock tour through Iowa in 2013 for three reasons: to thank veterans; to promote Iowa tourism and to feed his family.

Sorensen is planning a 100th rock to conclude his Iowa tour and is giving all the cities in the state that missed out on hosting a Freedom Rock a chance to purchase this one. His next goal after that is to put a Freedom Rock in all 50 states. So far, he’s done three in Minnesota, three in Missouri, one in Wisconsin and has one planned in Illinois.

Sorensen opened an art studio in 2008, and when he’s not painting Freedom Rocks, he’s busy painting murals both indoors and out. In 2018, he was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives to represent District 20 covering Adair and Guthrie counties.