When James Fairfax joined the Marine Corps at the age of 18 in 1958, it was, as he describes it, a “means to an end” of escaping the financial struggles of his upbringing in Washington, D.C. He hoped the Marines would allow him to travel the world—and they did—but he had no notion the Corps might help him develop into an accomplished artist. After six months as an infantryman, Fairfax had the chance to train first as a draftsman and then—through dogged persistence and a new-found love of art—as a combat artist. When he deployed to Vietnam in 1968, his assignment was to embed with combat patrols, medevac teams, and others to literally sketch, draw, and paint American service peoples’ combat experiences in real time. He personally observed and captured the realities of combat, the trauma of casualty triage, and solemnity among the fallen at the beginning of their journeys home. His time in Vietnam changed his perspective and his life. In this interview, Fairfax discusses all this as well as what it was like to serve as an African American Marine in an uncommon occupational specialty in the 1960s and 1970s.