You’ve probably heard of the Monuments Men. You may know about the priceless works of art and artifacts they saved during World War II. But did you know the U.S. Army tasked Amarillo’s own Col. Andrew Scott DeJesse with reviving the Monuments Men and Women for a new generation?

DeJesse is an Amarillo artist who finds inspiration in the people and landscapes of the Panhandle. He is also a longtime member of the Army Reserves, having served one tour in Iraq and two in Afghanistan. Where some might see a contradiction in a soldier and an artist, Uncle Sam saw an opportunity. 

Today, DeJesse continues to serve our country in a role that could impact every ongoing conflict and those awaiting us in the future. To do this, he has reestablished a legendary military department left dormant since World War II.

A Portrait of the Artist

A native of New Jersey, DeJesse graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. While attending art school, he participated in ROTC at Drexel University. “I’ve done a lot of ‘opposite’ things in my life,” DeJesse says. “I guess it’s kept me interdisciplinary in nature.” He received a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and entered the service. Then, in the late 1990s, he shifted his focus to a career in advertising, working as an illustrator and art director in New York. “I worked on Madison Avenue and did all that. Then I had an opportunity to come down to Texas, and I took it,” he says.

That was two decades ago, and upon arriving in the Panhandle, DeJesse experienced an artistic awakening. “I considered my trade as an illustrator and art director as a vocation,” he says. “You know, this was a 9-to-5 job. When I came to Texas, the area struck me, and I just started painting it. We’d come up here to visit my wife’s family, I would get a lot of reference material relating to the area, [and] that’s what I was painting. This is where the art is located, at least for me.” 

For his medium, DeJesse works with oil paints. He uses layer upon layer of washes to create his signature blend of atmosphere and realism. “I treat it like watercolor—very thin. Most people, when they see the work, think it’s watercolor. But then they notice there’s no glass protecting it.” He’s considered a regionalist artist, because he thematically paints the area. But he doesn’t consider his work to be Southwestern in the traditional styles of New Mexico and Texas. “To me, the realism of the area is very striking,” he says. “Most of what I paint relates to my wife’s family. They’ve been here for generations.”

DeJesse names Andrew Wyeth, John Singer Sargent, and Paul Cézanne as some of his influences. But the largest influence on his work would be the people and the area. “When I come up with a preconceived notion of what the output is going to be, it usually turns into a flop. I have to let the process take hold of me, and I’m just along for the ride,” he says. DeJesse’s art often appears in galleries and art shows, including those hosted by the Amarillo Museum of Art and the Pickens Museum in Oklahoma. 

General Dwight D Eisenhower inspects art treasures looted by the Germans and stored away in the Merkers salt mine. 4/12/45. (RG 111-SC-204516, National Archives.)

While DeJesse’s move to Texas had a profound effect on his life, another unexpected event had deeply impacted him—and the rest of the country. Like many Americans, the events of 9/11 inspired him to once again serve his country in uniform. He still had his commission, and in the following years, he returned to active duty and multiple deployments. 

In 2019, DeJesse was promoted to Colonel and assigned to Fort Liberty (the U.S. Army installation in North Carolina, formerly known as Fort Bragg). There, his commanding general at the time recognized DeJesse’s art background and asked a question: Had he ever heard of the Monuments Men and Women? 

A Worldwide Legacy

As World War II tore across the world, passionate individuals and organizations did what they could to protect art and history. For example, the contents of the Louvre in Paris—including the Mona Lisa—were evacuated and hidden away before Germany invaded.

The Allies recognized the importance of these efforts. President Roosevelt established the “American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas,” commonly known as the Roberts Commission. These efforts helped establish the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section Unit, the story of which was popularized by a book and
2014 film called Monuments Men, starring George Clooney.

Monuments Men and Women remained on the front lines and beyond throughout the war. They were among the first on the scene in battle, doing what they could to protect and rescue art and history. When historic landmarks received damage in battle, Monuments Men and Women made temporary repairs before moving on to the next dangerous area. The MFAA influenced the planning of operations, such as creating maps showing Allied pilots where not to drop bombs when taking the Italian city
of Florence.

As World War II drew to a close, Allied soldiers often found repositories of priceless treasures in country estates, jails or salt mines. Whether these troves were the result of preservation efforts or Nazi looting, it fell to the Monuments Men and Women to protect the contents and see everything returned home. They recovered more than 5 million pieces of art and historical pieces.

LADY WITH AN ERMINE BY LEONARDO DA VINCI, RESCUED FROM NAZI STORAGE IN 1945 BY MONUMENTS MEN

The impact of the Monuments Men and Women cannot be overstated. As the official organization ended, its members continued to affect the world of art and culture. But then, post-9/11, the looting of Iraq’s national museum during the 2003 Battle of Baghdad highlighted for the U.S. Army the need for a group of modern Monuments Men and Women.

Putting the Band Back Together

The role of assembling a team was offered to DeJesse, who began recruiting people for this renewed initiative. He called his colleague at the Smithsonian, Corine Wegener, a retired major out of the Army Reserve. They established an official partnership between the Smithsonian and the Army’s Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command. According to DeJesse, the two got together and said, “‘That’s it. We’re putting the band back together.’ We led the way with redeveloping the Monuments Men and Women program.”

DeJesse, right, and his unit soldiers prior to conducting Airborne Operations

Col. DeJesse is now the director of the 36G/6V Heritage and Preservation Officer Program, also known as the Monuments Men and Women, or the Monuments Officers Program. This program operates under CAPOC,  with the U.S. Army Special Operations Command as the area of concentration. It is headquartered at Fort Liberty. 

According to the U.S. Army, a Monuments officer “advises and assists on, or reestablishes and directs, the administration and management of all activities regarding cultural heritage assets at the national, regional and provincial levels.”

To accomplish these goals, the American military faces substantially different challenges today than it did during World War II, when 16 million Americans from all walks of life mobilized for the war. Today’s combat-focused military is much smaller. “But in World War II, you had people who were professors in the universities, running banks, running museums, principals of schools,” DeJesse says. “Those people were useful for things like the Marshall Plan and the rebuilding of Europe.” 

A painting by the French impressionist Edouard Manet, titled Wintergarden, discovered in the vault at Merkers. 4/25/45. (RG 111-SC-203453-5, National Archives)

Those kinds of professionals don’t often end up in uniform, DeJesse says. The Army recognized this, and in 2013, began recruiting individuals with what he calls “an enterprise-level of expertise.” They had master’s degrees or PhDs. They had unique resumes and experiences at all levels of culture.

“We’re on track to have 50 Monuments officers,” DeJesse says now, more per capita than during World War II. “We’ve operationalized and deployed Monuments officers in Central and South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It’s just beyond my dreams.” 

Some reporting has described the modern Monuments Men and Women’s efforts as a “task force,” but DeJesse explains that this is inaccurate. Instead, experts are spread across the U.S. Army’s civil affairs units. “That’s the way it should be,” says DeJesse. “You’ve got to be in with the soldiers, sharing that knowledge. That’s the way it was in World War II.”

Preserving Culture, Preserving Peace

“When it comes to cultural heritage,” DeJesse says, “it’s the canary in the coal mine for pending conflicts and the nature of the conflicts.” This idea, which he attributes to Kurt Vonnegut, presents artists and the arts as super-sensitive alarm systems in a society. 

In that context, cultural heritage applies to movable and immovable art and artifacts, along with historical sites, landmarks, and more. It’s not as simple as taking items and moving them to a safe space, which would violate international law. The military works to safeguard cultural heritage within its country of origin, with Monuments officers providing resources to protect museums and cultural sites.

“It’s about intangible heritage, too,” says DeJesse. “Social practices, oral histories, knowledge of the universe, dance, the way art is delivered, how products are produced, the transmission of culture—all those things.” The people in a host nation get to determine what qualifies as cultural heritage, which is a critical act of sovereignty. “They’re the ones who consider what’s important.”

DeJesse offers an example about how protecting cultural heritage can affect diplomatic relations. “If a military partner had to fight a war in U.S. territory, and they parked tanks in the middle of the Alamo, how do you think Texans would feel about them?”

During conflict, his work also impacts future opportunities for reconciliation and stabilization. “If cultural heritage is destroyed, a lot of times it can’t be brought back. Once it disappears, it’s gone. If those ways and means are destroyed during war, what do you rally around?”

Looking for a Few Good Monuments Men and Women

When people ask DeJesse how he ended up in his position, he tells them that’s what happens when an artist ends up in a combat zone. “It’s because I went to war. I had an arts background, and I saw what was happening,” DeJesse explains. “Where are the artists? What are they saying? They’re not saying much. Where’s their culture? Well, it’s blown up. Where are the objects that were in this museum? They were stolen. This is what happens during war.”

While the Monuments Men and Women is now fully rebuilt, DeJesse’s department still needs experts with advanced degrees in heritage preservation or the arts. “You also need at least four years of experience in the field, doing enterprise-level work with a regional, statewide, national or international network. It’s not just what you know but who you know,” he says.

These individuals, many of whom enter war zones while in established careers, represent a different kind of hero. “Our experts in the field care so much about this work. Their lives are established. They might have a family, a full career that’s very successful,” DeJesse says. “We’ve appointed somebody at 54 years old as a captain. They raised their right hand and said, ‘Send me. Put me in uniform. Put me in the mud.’ They want to serve and protect their country. They just happen to be experts in cultural heritage. If their country calls upon them, they’re willing to stand up and be counted.”