<

Exceptions to War Trophy Policy Little Known

Thursday, May 8, 2003
By Specialist Bill Putnam
U.S. Army
Army News Service

An individual soldier buying an item from a market is legal as long as receipts are maintained, Cole said. "But finding a prayer rug in a bunker during a battle and taking it home is illegal," Cole said. An infantry battalion collecting something to send home shouldn't confuse it as a war trophy, Cole said. "It's federal property," he said.

WASHINGTON -- ANS
Some U.S. soldiers are being investigated for illegally sending weapons, or war trophies, home from Iraq.

While still under investigation, the recent smuggling case of a soldier allegedly sending gold-plated firearms home from Iraq through the mail is probably an example of commanders and soldiers not understanding the potential value of such trophies, said David Cole, a curator at the Army Center of Military History.

What some soldiers might not know is that it is possible to send weapons home if certain paperwork is filed, said Cole, who also works on Army museum policy at Fort McNair.

Defining the word "war trophy" is a matter of semantics and legality, Cole said.

It wasn't until after the Grenada and the Panama invasions that the Army recognized that most military museums were filled with stuff taken from past battlefields and drafted a policy governing war trophies, Cole said. That policy was first implemented in Operation Desert Storm and continues to this day in places like Kosovo, Afghanistan and, now, Iraq.

In the regulation that governs historical artifacts, AR 870-20, war trophies are defined as something an individual soldier brings home from war -- like a helmet, uniform, flag or even a weapon.
(More: Military.com)
2003 © Army News Service.

Dan