The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District’s Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections (MCX-CMAC), has developed a temporary employment program that provides training to wounded veterans, teaching them to describe, process, and curate Corps archaeological collections using a variety of standard and specialized processes and equipment. Training offered through the VCP includes database development, report writing, digital assets management, records digitizing, records management, photography and scanning, objects inventory and tracking, and objects and records processing.
In partnership with archaeological contracting firm, Brockington and Associates out of Norcross, Georgia, three VCP labs are currently up and running. On October 5, 2009, the first VCP lab opened in Augusta, Georgia. The second opened its doors on December 7, 2009, in St. Louis, Missouri, and the third opened on January 25, 2010, in Washington, D.C. The Corps has allocated $3.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009) funding in support of the Nation’s returning veterans, while advancing the public stewardship of federally owned archeological collections
