Edward Bowen carried a .45-caliber pistol, pencils, a sketchpad, Kodak Instamatic camera, and compact Bible into Vietnam in January 1969 for an unusual mission—documenting the war as a combat artist. A 24-year-old art teacher at Villa Park High School, Bowen was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he would spend 10 weeks at basic training and 10 weeks studying to be a transmission mechanic and door gunner for military helicopters. In an interview 52 years later from his home in Newport Beach, California, Bowen, now 78 years old, said it was an intervention from God that saved him from a job in Vietnam his sergeant said he would likely kill him. It led him to become a military artist and art teacher, helped him start his own successful Christian jewelry company, and allowed him to teach people of all ages about his craft and war experience. Bowen said he had …
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