Army Lt. Col. Daniel Gade, who grew up in Minot, and retired Air Force Staff Sgt. Scott Lilley, who was stationed with the 5th Security Forces Squadron at Minot Air Force Base, are among the collection 66 full-color portraits and a four-panel mural painted by Bush of members of the U.S. military who have served the nation with honor since 9/11 and whom he has come to know personally.

The paintings in the book will be the subject of a special exhibition at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, also titled “Portraits of Courage,” which will open to the public from March 2 through early October 2017.

“I painted these men and women as a way to honor their service to the country and to show my respect for their sacrifice and courage,” Bush wrote in the book’s introduction. “I hope to draw attention to the challenges some face when they come home and transition to civilian life – and the need for our country to better address them.”

Gade, who graduated from Minot High School in 1993 and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1997, was wounded twice in Iraq. In 2005 he lost his right leg and suffered other extensive injuries after being in an improvised explosive device attack while serving as a tank company commander in Iraq.

Submitted Art President George W. Bush did this painting of Army Lt. Col. Daniel Gade of Minot, who lost his leg in an improvised explosive device attack in Iraq in 2005. Gade’s now an instructor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

After spending extensive time recuperating and doing physical therapy at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Gade worked at the White House during the Bush Administration and earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in public administration from the University of Georgia at Athens.

Bush writes in his story about Gade that watching him ride a mountain bike in the Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, Texas, in 2012 “was unbelievable.” Gade has competed in Ironman and Race Across America events.

Gade continues to serve on active-duty in the Army, now as a professor of public policy and political science at West Point, and writes extensively on public policy.

Bush related in his book that Gade told him he credits his recovery “to his wife, their girls and his desire to serve God.”

Retired U.S. Air Force Scott P. Lilley was stationed at Minot AFB when he went to Iraq for his second tour of duty in a combat zone. Previously, he served in Afghanistan. Five months into his tour in Iraq, he was seriously injured on April 15, 2007, when a roadside bomb went off beside the Humvee he was in. Lilley was hit on the side of his head by a piece of shrapnel, the metal entered his skull under his left temple and he suffered a traumatic brain injury.

That day changed the lives of Lilley and his family. During Scott Lilley’s long recovery he and his parents, Frank and Jolene Lilley of Roswell, N.M., became acquainted with Bush while Scott was at the military hospital in Bethesda, Md. Bush took a special interest in Lilley.

In later years, Bush invited Lilley to play golf in a golf tournament for wounded warriors. Bush said in his story in his book that he didn’t know what kind of a golfer Lilley would be but knew he was “one heck of a fighter if he’d recovered enough to play.”

Shortly after the tournament, Lilley introduced Bush to his young daughter, MiKaylie Lilley. Bush painted father and daughter together. MiKaylie’s mother is Candi McCloud of Belcourt.

Lilley was medically retired from the Air Force in 2010. He and his daughter live in San Antonio, Texas, where he works as a civilian for the Department of Defense at Lackland AFB, Texas. He is a guest speaker at many events honoring American veterans. A book, “After April,” published in September 2016, tells the story of Lilley and his family, along with many others, on his road to recovery and healing.

Bush is donating the net proceeds from his book to the George W. Bush Presidential Center, a nonprofit organization whose Military Service Initiative focuses on helping post-9/11 veterans and their families make a successful transition to civilian life and addressing issues of veteran wellness, including post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury.