National Museum of the Marine Corps

This museum, located near Quantico, Virginia, displays a extensive history of the US Marines Corps.  It features static and  multimedia displays of the story of Marines from the founding of America to current conflicts and from boot camp to a recruit becoming a member of the corps.

Visitors walk past a bus that delivers raw recruits, listen to a drill sergeant issue stern orders and follows the procedure of building a Marine.  Well-crafted replicas of battles from WWI through current conflicts are featured.  Videos, recordings, dioramas and actual implements provide the feeling of battle.  Our view was less that this museum is a boasting of wars won and more to give the visitor a sense of the tension, fears and loss that are the true nature of battles.  The depiction of   the WWI Belleau Forest battle is an excellent example of the cost of decisions made by officers and of the travails faced on the battlefield  where over 1,000 men died in  a  fruitless charge..

This Model T, donated by three women to the Marine Corps, was the only motorized vehicle the Marines had in WWI.    It carried ammunition and supplies to the troops and evacuated the wounded.

The museum tells the dark side of the Marines with the military’s reluctance to have African Americans and women serve.  Further on in the museum, where today’s fighters are shown, all members of American society are welcome if they can survive the extreme demands of qualifying for the Corps.

This 37 star flag was flown after the Civil War.

This M4 Sherman Tank was part of the equipment of the Pacific Theater of WWII.

The section on Chosun in the Korean War was chilled so that visitors could have a hint of the conditions fighting there.

This Ontos vehicle was rejected by the Army but used successfully by the Marines for street-to-street fighting in Hue, Vietnam.

This re-creation, located near the gift shop, of raising the flag over Iwo Jima is made of Legos.

The President’s Own, the Marine Corps Band, was so designated by Thomas Jefferson.  In 1873 a Washington newspaper said it was “eminently the national band of the country.”  While a small number of members are Marines, most of the band members are professional musicians who serve in the band for four years.  John Phillips Sousa led the band to its current acclaim.  This is THE band designated to perform Hail to the Chief at presidential inaugurations.  (Rain prevented our attending a Memorial Day performance of the band.)

After our visit to the museum we spent a lovely evening with Anna Lee’s cousins, Conne and Mark.   We had a delicious dinner and then a tour of the senior community they recently moved into.