The concept of the Vietnam Combat Art Program had its roots in World War II when the U.S. Congress authorized the Army to use soldier-artists to record military operations in 1944.

[5] Typically, each team consisted of five soldier artists who spent 60 days of temporary duty (TDY) in Vietnam gathering information and making preliminary sketches of U.S. Army related activities.

[6] List of U.S. Army Vietnam Combat Artist Team (CAT) members and supervisors from 15 August 1966 – 14 January 1970.

(Cities listed reflect information on original applications which are currently in archives of U.S. Army Center of Military History).

James Pollock, who in 1967 served as a soldier artist on U. S. Army Vietnam Combat Artist Team IV (CAT IV), chronicled his experience in an essay entitled "US Army Soldier-Artists in Vietnam" for "War, Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities"[7] published by the department of English and Fine Arts, United States Air Force Academy.

In the essay Pollock wrote: "The idea of rotating teams of young soldier-artists from a variety of backgrounds and experiences through Vietnam was innovative.

Styles and media used were as diverse as the artists themselves, some chose detailed literal images while others preferred expressive almost abstract explosions striving to replicate the horrors of war".

Like members of eight other Army soldier-artist teams before them, they left their sketchbooks and paintings of war-torn Vietnam behind and quietly returned to their respective military units scattered throughout the world or were re-assigned.