ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 12, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - In this Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012 photo, artist Marcus Eriksen, a Gulf War veteran, works on a mold of his mentor, Capt. Charles Moore, a fellow scientist, at his home studio in Los Angeles. More than 350 veterans of Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan have turned to art to preserve more intimate and enduring memories of war, and more than 2,500 of their works have found a home at Chicago’s National Veterans Art Museum. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, NOV. 11, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - In this Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012 photo, artist Marcus Eriksen, a Gulf War veteran, works on a mold of his mentor, Capt. Charles Moore, a fellow scientist, at his home studio in Los Angeles. More than 350 veterans of Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan have turned to art to preserve more intimate and enduring memories of war, and more than 2,500 of their works have found a home at Chicago’s National Veterans Art Museum. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 12, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated photo provided by artist Marcus Eriksen shows his "My Angel in the Desert" sculpture. Eriksen was a young Marine sergeant during the Gulf War, riding with a convoy to Kuwait City, when he encountered the Iraqi soldier. It was the first dead body he'd seen. The image was haunting, the experience unforgettable. But it took more than a decade before he started welding the memory into art. (AP Photo/Marcus Eriksen)

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, NOV. 11, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated photo provided by artist Marcus Eriksen shows his "My Angel in the Desert" sculpture. Eriksen was a young Marine sergeant during the Gulf War, riding with a convoy to Kuwait City, when he encountered the Iraqi soldier. It was the first dead body he'd seen. The image was haunting, the experience unforgettable. But it took more than a decade before he started welding the memory into art. (AP Photo/Marcus Eriksen)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 12, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - In this Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012 photo, artist Marcus Eriksen, a Gulf War veteran, poses for a photo at his home studio in Los Angeles. Eriksen found part of this Japanese fishing boat floating offshore on a whirlpool of junk known as the Pacific Gyre. More than 350 veterans of Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan have turned to art to preserve more intimate and enduring memories of war, and more than 2,500 of their works have found a home at Chicago’s National Veterans Art Museum. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, NOV. 11, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - In this Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012 photo, artist Marcus Eriksen, a Gulf War veteran, poses for a photo at his home studio in Los Angeles. Eriksen found part of this Japanese fishing boat floating offshore on a whirlpool of junk known as the Pacific Gyre. More than 350 veterans of Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan have turned to art to preserve more intimate and enduring memories of war, and more than 2,500 of their works have found a home at Chicago’s National Veterans Art Museum. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 12, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated image provided by the National Veterans Art Museum shows "Thousand Yard Stare" by Helen White. More than 30 years passed before White painted the picture of the officer she saw at the 67th Evacuation Hospital in Qui Nhon, Vietnam, where she served as an orthopedic nurse. She doesn't remember his name, his face or much else beyond the fact that he'd arrived there after surviving a firefight that had killed almost everyone else. (AP Photo/National Veterans Art Museum, Helen White)

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, NOV. 11, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated image provided by the National Veterans Art Museum shows "Thousand Yard Stare" by Helen White. More than 30 years passed before White painted the picture of the officer she saw at the 67th Evacuation Hospital in Qui Nhon, Vietnam, where she served as an orthopedic nurse. She doesn't remember his name, his face or much else beyond the fact that he'd arrived there after surviving a firefight that had killed almost everyone else. (AP Photo/National Veterans Art Museum, Helen White)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 12, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated image provided by the National Veterans Art Museum shows "Army Man In A Bottle II" by Malachi Muncy. He was just 18 when he first deployed, and once in the combat zone, Muncy says he began taking sleeping pills to shut out the world. The constant dangers he faced on truck-driving convoys were overwhelming. "So much bad stuff happened," he recalls. "Watching IEDs explode, and mortars hit. Being pinned down on bridges, you wonder where the fire is coming from. You just sit and wait to get shot at and you have no control over whether you're going to live or die ... I was having nightmares. I really felt I was going to do stupid things and hurt the wrong people. I was having thoughts I couldn't expel." (AP Photo/National Veterans Art Museum, Malachi Muncy)

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, NOV. 11, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated image provided by the National Veterans Art Museum shows "Army Man In A Bottle II" by Malachi Muncy. He was just 18 when he first deployed, and once in the combat zone, Muncy says he began taking sleeping pills to shut out the world. The constant dangers he faced on truck-driving convoys were overwhelming. "So much bad stuff happened," he recalls. "Watching IEDs explode, and mortars hit. Being pinned down on bridges, you wonder where the fire is coming from. You just sit and wait to get shot at and you have no control over whether you're going to live or die ... I was having nightmares. I really felt I was going to do stupid things and hurt the wrong people. I was having thoughts I couldn't expel." (AP Photo/National Veterans Art Museum, Malachi Muncy)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 12, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated image provided by artist Richard Olsen shows his work "Hill 881." The hill was the site of one of the bloodiest Marine battles in Vietnam. The repeated image in the work was inspired by the famous Robert Capa photo of the fallen soldier in the Spanish Civil War. "I wanted to make it an endless plight ... of the Marines trying to take the hill over and over and over," Olsen says. "There's just an absurd twist to it." (AP Photo/Richard Olsen)

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, NOV. 11, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated image provided by artist Richard Olsen shows his work "Hill 881." The hill was the site of one of the bloodiest Marine battles in Vietnam. The repeated image in the work was inspired by the famous Robert Capa photo of the fallen soldier in the Spanish Civil War. "I wanted to make it an endless plight ... of the Marines trying to take the hill over and over and over," Olsen says. "There's just an absurd twist to it." (AP Photo/Richard Olsen)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 12, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - In this 1963 photo from the U.S. Army, Gen. Joseph Stilwell Jr. awards Richard Olsen with the Air Medal at Bien Hoa, South Vietnam. Olsen moved beyond Vietnam to an artistic career that has spanned more than 50 years; he's produced more than 1,000 paintings, many of them abstract. His work has been shown in galleries around the country. Yet those days when he flew his chopper over the dense thicket of jungle maintain a deep hold on him. "War is the depth of the human experience," he says. "It's the most meaningful part of anyone's life." (AP Photo/U.S. Army)

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, NOV. 11, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - In this 1963 photo from the U.S. Army, Gen. Joseph Stilwell Jr. awards Richard Olsen with the Air Medal at Bien Hoa, South Vietnam. Olsen moved beyond Vietnam to an artistic career that has spanned more than 50 years; he's produced more than 1,000 paintings, many of them abstract. His work has been shown in galleries around the country. Yet those days when he flew his chopper over the dense thicket of jungle maintain a deep hold on him. "War is the depth of the human experience," he says. "It's the most meaningful part of anyone's life." (AP Photo/U.S. Army)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 12, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated image provided by the National Veterans Art Museum shows "The Refugee" by Vietnam veteran and artist Richard Olsen. Olsen created the yellow-and-black linocut after returning home following a year's tour as an Army helicopter pilot with the 33rd Transportation Company in Vietnam. He came back in 1963, and the war in faraway Southeast Asia was not yet fully on America's radar, so producing these images was his way of sounding an alarm. "It was like, 'Hey, you guys, there's a war going on,’" Olsen says. "Why make pictures of flowers? Why not make pictures of war?" (AP Photo/National Veterans Art Museum, Richard Olsen)

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, NOV. 11, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated image provided by the National Veterans Art Museum shows "The Refugee" by Vietnam veteran and artist Richard Olsen. Olsen created the yellow-and-black linocut after returning home following a year's tour as an Army helicopter pilot with the 33rd Transportation Company in Vietnam. He came back in 1963, and the war in faraway Southeast Asia was not yet fully on America's radar, so producing these images was his way of sounding an alarm. "It was like, 'Hey, you guys, there's a war going on,’" Olsen says. "Why make pictures of flowers? Why not make pictures of war?" (AP Photo/National Veterans Art Museum, Richard Olsen)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 12, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated image provided by the National Veterans Art Museum shows "Commitment" by Vietnam veteran and artist Richard Olsen. More than 350 veterans of Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan have turned to art to preserve more intimate and enduring memories of war, and more than 2,500 of their works have found a home at Chicago’s National Veterans Art Museum. (AP Photo/National Veterans Art Museum, Richard Olsen)

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, NOV. 11, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated image provided by the National Veterans Art Museum shows "Commitment" by Vietnam veteran and artist Richard Olsen. More than 350 veterans of Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan have turned to art to preserve more intimate and enduring memories of war, and more than 2,500 of their works have found a home at Chicago’s National Veterans Art Museum. (AP Photo/National Veterans Art Museum, Richard Olsen)

ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 12, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated image provided by the National Veterans Art Museum shows "Transfer’s of War (triptych 1, part 2)" by Ash Kyrie. Kyrie wasn't an artist before he went to Iraq with the Wisconsin Army National Guard. But after his return in 2004, the former debate champ no longer wanted to follow family tradition and become a lawyer. "I was a different person," he says. "I wasn't interested in the same things. I threw away my TV. I wanted to express feelings and emotions." (AP Photo/National Veterans Art Museum, Ash Kyrie)

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, NOV. 11, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - This undated image provided by the National Veterans Art Museum shows "Transfer’s of War (triptych 1, part 2)" by Ash Kyrie. Kyrie wasn't an artist before he went to Iraq with the Wisconsin Army National Guard. But after his return in 2004, the former debate champ no longer wanted to follow family tradition and become a lawyer. "I was a different person," he says. "I wasn't interested in the same things. I threw away my TV. I wanted to express feelings and emotions." (AP Photo/National Veterans Art Museum, Ash Kyrie)