Members of the VFW Post 3048 in Baker City — Commander Mike Wilson, left, Coral Widman and Rusty Little — pose with Ken McLean (white shirt) who on July 4, 2024, delivered a handmade shadow box honoring the late Chuck Mawhinney. 

Ken McLean keeps his hands busy building gifts for veterans to calm the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“This is a form of therapy,” he said.

McLean, 45, lives in Helena, Montana, where he spends hours crafting shadow boxes to honor military veterans. Each is a work of art created with tiny plastic soldiers arranged in either an American flag or the shape of a state.

“I’ve built 14 of them so far,” he said.

On July 4, he arrived in Baker City to present one to the VFW in honor of Chuck Mawhinney, a Marine Corps veteran who died Feb. 12 at age 74. The box features an American flag designed with toy soldiers painted red, white and blue.

He’d heard about Mawhinney, who holds the record for Marine snipers with 103 confirmed kills in Vietnam, from his cousin, John McLean, who lives in Huntington.

“I felt compelled to do this,” Ken McLean said.

Ken McLean served multiple deployments with the U.S. Army from 2000 to 2006, when he was medically discharged after his body was crushed while in Iraq.

“I was temporarily paralyzed for six weeks,” he said.

Although McLean recovered, the effects of his injuries lingered, and he was taking 19 pills, twice a day.

“I was dealing with extreme pain, and didn’t know how to get help,” he said. “I started drinking heavier and heavier. I was a functioning alcoholic.”

His turning point came when he found himself in an armed standoff with the sheriff’s department. His dog, he said, kept him from pulling the trigger.

“Every time I put a gun to my head, he’d do something at the door,” McLean said.

He entered a nine-week treatment program in Sheridan, Wyoming.

He’s been sober since July 6, 2017.

In 2018, he learned of a third veteran who had completed suicide in Montana, and that’s when he started making shadow boxes.

“I figured I had to do something,” he said.

He also has a custom-built barbecue that he travels to veterans events.

“During the winter, I park the barbecue and spend time doing this,” he said of the boxes.

He said it takes him about 40 hours to build each one, and he’s presented boxes in several states, including Montana, Oregon, Nevada, Texas and Georgia.

“It keeps me pretty busy,” he said.