A new exhibit honoring Vietnam vets is open at the Navy Memorial in Washington.

It honors America’s heroes through art, but the canvases on display were never meant for drawing.

That’s because the art was all created by U.S. troops on the long, slow journey to the front lines.

Vietnam veteran Mike Fasulo remembers his 21-day trip to war aboard the troop ship Walker.

“They had movies, but not much good. The food was terrible. We played a lot of cards,” Fasulo said.

During that time, pensive soldiers put their pens to canvas, leaving their mark on the ship.

Some of that graffiti was meant to entertain, other sketches counted the days.

One piece was Fasulo’s.

Forty years later, he got another look at the graffiti he left behind.

“I was there.  I, uh … wow,” he said.

Fasulo was one of about 500,000 men who slept on the Walker’s bunks during the voyage to Vietnam.

The husband and wife in charge of the project say the mission behind their work is simple.

“It thanks them for their service, which is long overdue,” exhibit curator Lee Beltrone said.

Lee and Art Beltrone saved the graffiti-covered canvasses from the ship just before it was turned into scrap metal and sent them to museums across the country.

“We do have probably about 400 canvases with messages of all kinds on them, and every message is a story, and is a person,” Art Beltrone said.

Now the Beltrones are trying to track down the troops, one at a time, to complete the picture of what life was like on the way to war.