The Army Is Looking for a Few Good Art Experts

It’s no secret that the war-ravaged nations where American soldiers have been enmeshed in conflict for nearly two decades are home to many of civilization’s oldest and most prized antiquities and cultural treasures.
But in the heat of battle in Afghanistan or Iraq, how are troops to know whether they are taking their positions behind mounds of insignificant rubble or inside the precious remains of a 3,000-year-old temple complex?
The Pentagon’s answer, announced on Monday at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, is to take a page from one of World War II’s most storied military units, the teams of art experts known as the Monuments Men who recovered millions of European treasures looted by the Nazis.
The Army is training a new group with a similar mandate to be composed of commissioned officers of the Army Reserves who are museum directors or curators, archivists, conservators and archaeologists in addition to new recruits with those qualifications. They will be based at the Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C.