An Iraqi army colonel leads American soldiers through one of the few excavated areas in the Hatra ruins, in a relatively peaceful region southwest of Mosul. When U.S. Army brass discovered that Capt. Jesse Ballenger had a background in archaeology, Hatra was deemed the perfect place to station the Tucsonan.

Photo by SGT. Rachel A. Brune, 101st Sustainment Brigade, U.S. Army

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Far removed from explosives and insurgents, Army Capt. Jesse Ballenger is fighting a different war in Iraq.

The National Guard member from Tucson is on a mission to protect one of the nation's historic jewels, an ancient city that one day could be a tourism draw and job creator for future generations of Iraqis.

Ballenger, a doctoral candidate in archaeology at the University of Arizona when he's not in camouflage, has found himself in the midst of Army efforts to safeguard the famed Hatra ruins, a 2,000-year-old walled compound rising from the desert in less-turbulent northern Iraq.

Unlike troops stationed in violent regions, Ballenger works in a relatively safe rural area. Soldiers there have been able to spend more time on reconstruction work.

Preserving Iraq's antiquities wasn't what Ballenger thought he'd be doing when he was deployed last November with the Phoenix-based 153rd Field Artillery Brigade.

For one thing, his main Army job is in supplies and logistics. And academically, he's more interested in ice age creatures, such as the now-extinct mammoths that once roamed Southern Arizona.

Still, when military leaders learned of his background, Ballenger was tapped to help secure the half-buried Mesopotamian city that hails from a time before Islam.

"I never expected to be using my archaeology training here," the 35-year-old Midtown resident said in a recent telephone interview from Iraq.

"Somehow it came up, and the next thing I know my commander was talking to other commanders, and here I am."

Hatra is deemed a site of worldwide importance by the Global Heritage Fund, a nonprofit group that aims to identify and preserve places of major historical significance.

The city is about 50 miles southwest of Mosul, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and is on the Silk Road, a millenniums-old trade route that connected the Far East, the Middle East and Europe.

As such, it was a place where cultures converged and cross-pollinated. Greek, Roman, Sumerian and Persian influences can be seen in Hatra's columns and arches, and in shrines and temples dedicated to different deities.

Ballenger has been designing a new perimeter fence for the 700-plus-acre site to replace crumbling barriers built in the 1970s by Saddam Hussein's government. For now, he said, the area is guarded by machine-gun-toting Iraqi police and civilians who have a hard time protecting the porous six-mile perimeter.

Ballenger also has to make sure the ruins are not damaged during the re-fencing process.

The site, which was partially excavated and restored by previous Iraqi rulers, sees intruders from time to time, he said. But much of the ancient city remains underground, covered by centuries of sandstorms.

Back in Tucson, Ballenger's university colleagues are applauding his overseas exploits.

"We at UA are very proud of what Jesse is doing," said anthropology professor Mary Stiner, one of Ballenger's academic advisers.

Hatra is a historical treasure-trove, Stiner said, and right now, the U.S. Army is probably in the best position to ensure its safety.

In wartime, "it is almost impossible for conventional research or conservation work to be done," she said.

"So any contribution by military personnel is really the only immediate hope for protecting these precious archaeological sites."

For Americans hearing daily reports of devastation in Iraq, it may be hard to imagine anyone wanting to vacation there.

But in the Middle East, Hatra already is known as a tourist attraction. For example, the Web site of a travel agency in Amman, Jordan, describes it as a place of "stunning beauty," widely regarded as "the loveliest ancient monument in Iraq."

Ballenger said he wants to do whatever he can to help the Iraqis recover from war and go on to the best possible future.

"Whether we got off to a good start in Iraq doesn't matter now," said Ballenger, who has a wife, Rebecca, 34; a son, Parrish, 6; and a daughter, George, 4, awaiting his return home this fall.

"Things have got to get better here, one way or another, and I am very committed to doing my part to make that happen," Ballenger said.

In the future, Hatra could rival Rome, Pompeii or the Parthenon in Greece as a sightseeing destination, he said.

"Historical tourism is a gigantic industry. The thought of one day opening this up to global visitation is pretty spectacular."