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Marking Time:  Voyage to Vietnam

Marking Time: Voyage to Vietnam

  An exhibit of the Vietnam Graffiti Project, guest-curated by Art Beltrone

“When a man in a melancholy mood is left tete-a-tete with the sea, or any landscape which seems to him grandiose, there is always, for some reason, mixed with melancholy, a conviction that he will live and die in obscurity, and he reflectively snatches up a pencil and hastens to write his name on the first thing that comes handy.” -Anton Chekhov

American soldiers and Marines went to war in Vietnam aboard the veteran troopship General Nelson M. Walker - as many as 5,000 at one time.  In fact, up to 500,000 Americans traveled to Vietnam on troop ships. They were young men, most still in their teens.  They had been drafted or were volunteers.  The soldiers would spend 12 months in Vietnam - Marines would spend 13 months.

The voyages usually began from West Coast ports like San Francisco, San Diego and Tacoma. They would each take from 18 to 21 days and cover more than 5,500 miles of ocean.

Most of the young troops had never been at sea before, and the voyage was at first exciting, then boring. Many became seasick. Each passing day brought the ship closer to war, and the heat and crowded troop compartments added to their discomfort.

Down in the troop compartments the men started using marking pens to write graffiti comments and messages on the bottom side of the canvas bunks.

They wrote their name and hometown, the date they expected to leave the service, and day-by-day calendars to mark the voyage’s progress.  There were messages of patriotism, politics, humor, anxiety and love.  They were written to be seen by other troops who would then add their own grafitti.

Writing on the canvases was against regulations, but as some of the men quipped, “What were they going to do, send us to Vietnam?”

Graffiti has been a form of artistic or political expression for centuries. Some call it art; some call it vandalism.  But archeologists and art historians find it useful to provide context and insight into the minds of those who inscribe personal messages in public places.  Nowhere is that more poignant than war graffiti. This exhibit takes a close look at the men behind the messages and compositions left behind on the troopship Walker more than 30 years ago.

    Experience the closeness of an original Walker eight-man berthing unit, complete with bedding, life vests and replicas of the graffiti-covered canvases recovered from the veteran troopship.


    See original photographs taken by Walker passengers in the berthing compartments and a canvas inscribed by a Charlottesville area Vietnam-bound soldier named “Bill.”


    Watch a three-minute video with archival footage of the troopship Walker.


    Listen to the soldiers who traveled to Vietnam on the Walker with a cell phone audio guide.

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