A historical painting stands or falls on how well it depicts the story. It is attempting to illustrate. It is measured on how convincingly it combines the people, their actions, costumes, surroundings and atmosphere in an appropriate composition. James Dietz is an American artist who has depicted military subjects for over 50 years. James uses many active duty and veteran subjects to model in his paintings. His effort to achieve the combination of historical fact and storytelling strikes a deep chord in his viewers. In 2015 Oakley Standard Issue collaborated with James in a Memorial Day collection. Commissioning three individual drawings, Oakley Standard Issue released a 3 sku collection featuring the conflicts of World War II, the Battle of Mogadishu, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.