At the foot of the Rockies in Colorado Springs, a low building sits tucked beside the Fort Carson visitor center, partly hidden behind a static display of old tanks. With its metal roof, buff brick walls, and dark breezeway, it looks more like a garage than a museum.
But inside are battlefield relics and more than a century of Army history. The museum tells the story of the Army's 4th Infantry Division from World War I to Utah Beach, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
The collection is eclectic, including soldier uniforms, a homemade shotgun likely used by the Viet Cong, and a steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center. In another room, a wall honors the division's Medal of Honor recipients. One exhibit shows the 4th Infantry Division's role in the operation that captured Saddam Hussein.
"We have on display the styrofoam plug that concealed Saddam Hussein's spider hole," said Daniel Roberts, the museum's acting curator. "The soldiers removed the plug and were about to clear it with a grenade when Saddam Hussein came up and surrendered."
Despite having only a few years of museum experience, Roberts is the museum's only employee, serving as curator, docent, technician, and marketing department. With the museum's director position vacant, he handles day-to-day oversight.
"I've had a fair few folks tell me, 'I didn't know there was a museum here,'" Roberts said. "And I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm trying to change that.'"
The museum draws mostly civilians, school groups, and military families, though soldiers stop in too. Veterans sometimes share their own memories, adding to the history on display.
Museums on some Army bases date back more than a hundred years. Unlike the bigger, more tourist-friendly, off-base museums that nonprofits operate in some military cities, Army museums are official institutions maintained by the service itself.
The deputy director of Army museums, Stefan Rohal, says they play an important role. The Army sometimes uses museum tours as part of training to teach soldiers about military operations, history, and leadership.
"There's a sense of pride and esprit de corps that comes from a place like this," Rohal said. "Soldiers today are experiencing some of the same things that soldiers in World War I experienced, albeit at a different level. Making those connections, I think, is important."
He said the museums can inspire future soldiers, too.
"Kids come through the museum, and it could be what makes them say, 'Hey, I want to serve my country.'"
But connecting people to that history isn't always easy. Many Army museums were established when military posts were more open to the public. Today, they sit behind security gates, forcing guests to stop at a visitor center, show identification, and get a pass before they can enter.
"I think that's a big roadblock for people. It's probably a little intimidating to come to a base and have to get a pass," said Rohal. "Not everybody's used to that."
Many museums also operate in aging buildings with expensive maintenance needs. According to Rohal, the system has seen its operating budget shrink every year since 2021 and has lost more than two dozen staff positions since 2023, with the prospect of further cuts ahead.
Those challenges have prompted Army museum leaders to take a broader look at the museum system.
Army museums grew up separately across the force, with local commands, installations and schools building collections tied to their own histories. Starting in 2016, the Army brought most of its museums under the U.S. Army Center of Military History, creating a more centralized museum system.
"There was definitely a different cultural mindset," said Charles Bowery, executive director of the U.S. Army Center of Military History, which oversees the museum system. "You determined your value or your effectiveness as a museum by the size of your collection. We can't do that anymore. That's not tenable."
Last year, internal Army planning documents obtained by the military news website Task & Purpose outlined a pre-decisional proposal to close or consolidate more than a dozen of the Army's 41 museums. The idea triggered backlash from Congress and local communities.
Congress later included language in the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act directing the Army to establish a formal museum system and notify Congress before closing museums. It also requires the Army to provide plans for preserving, storing or relocating collections before any closure. In April, the U.S. Army Center of Military History announced that the museum consolidation plan had been paused.
But museum officials say the underlying challenges remain.
"The same conditions that led us to propose this are still in effect," Bowery said. "We don't have enough staff to maintain all of these facilities at an appropriate level. We have millions of dollars in deferred maintenance costs on many of the buildings, low visitation in some places, and challenges with getting on base in others."
"If I have money at a given location that's going to fund a rifle range, soldier barracks, or family housing, those things will always take priority over a museum. And we understand that," said Bowery.
"Something has to give here. In my view, if we're going to stay at the current level of resources, we have to do less. Or we have to invest to do what we want to do."
Bowery says officials are rethinking what role the Army's museums should play and how the system should be organized. They're also reviewing staffing, visitation, costs, and collections.
For Daniel Roberts, the acting curator of the 4th Infantry Museum at Fort Carson, the debate over the Army's museum consolidation plans became personal in 2025 when his museum appeared on an early list of proposed closures.
"I'd been here only a year, so it was a bit of a gut punch, because I was just getting settled in. But at the end of the day, it's the Army, and the Army does what it wants to do," he said.
Museum officials say they're developing new consolidation plans and hope to send them to Army leadership for approval this summer.
This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans.
