03Fox2/1
02-11-06, 00:48
As a proud member of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, I have long anticipated the grand opening of our museum, and on our birthday, no less. Semper Fi 03Fox2/1
The following appeared in the Charlotte Observer today. The story is by Barbara Barrett of the Raleigh News and Observer.
Dedication November 10th
"Museum tries to give taste of Marines at war."
Facility honors Corps' tough tasks, triumphs
Quantico, Va.-- Lance Cpl. Matthew Stephens, who just returned from Iraq, figures that for the new National Museum of the Marine Corps to truly convey his experience in Ramadi, the exhibit hall would have to be the pitch black of night.
Tourists would have to run, dashing across pockmarked pavement in night-vision goggles, aiming their weapons at every window, tensed for any sound that might be either a cat jumping off a wall or six insurgents about to open up. Their hearts would be pounding, their breath coming hard, the hunger and exhaustion long ago faded to leave behind only adrenaline and, maybe, a bit of fear.
That's how it was for Stephens, anyway.
"You'll never fully understand war unless you were there," he said. "It does a number on your mind."
The museum, which opens to the public November 13th, just after Vaterans Day, can't replicate the experiences of Marines, who've served in battle since the Revolutionary War. But it will try.
By leading visitors through darkened exhibits, by piping in the whizzes of bullets and the wash of a chopper's rotor blades, the museum's creators aim to educate visitors about the Marine's work in wars that, often, the grunts themselves didn't fully understand.
There will be oral histories about bloody battles, a notebook of letters home from troops and a wall of coin-sized insignias, one for each of more than 6,000 lives lost at Iwo Jima.
"I think the most important thing this museum can do is put you in the position Marines were in and let you draw your own conclusions," said Lin Ezell, the museum's director. "There's no right or wrong answer. We're not guiding. We're just saying, "This is what happened."
The museum opens as the United States civilian and military leadership is struggling with a difficult war that brings near-daily reports of casualties. At any time, some 25,000 Marines are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and more that 840 have died.
"I think there's two sides to museums,' said Stephens, 20, of Hoover, Alabama. "Number one, there's the experience: "Oh my God, they had to do that ?" Teaching what they're going through.
"And then teaching for the future: "Man, this is what happens when people start wars ?"
The museum began development in 1999, before the attacks of September 11, 2001, plunged the nation into its battle with terrorism. It took years for the Corps' heritage foundation to raise enough millions in a public-private partnership to hire architects, collect artifacts and figure the best way to tell the Marines story.
Founders decided to celebrate the grunts, rather than the generals, and to build on the Corps' long tradition of inspiring young Marines through its history. The museum includes three "immersion" exhibits that attempt to help tourists experience battles in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
Curators spent years gathering artifacts and poring through documents to create the exhibits. The museum reconstructed a bullet-riddled building in Vietnam from an old photograph, and punctured the tire on a howitzer because the tires frequently went flat from flying shrapnel. To re-create the sands of battlefields, curators sent soil samples to the exhibit designers.
The museum holds little from America's current war, but curators already are thinking how best to honor its fighters.
"It's impossible to put into historic perspective what's happening today," Ezell said.
Still, she added, the museum couldn't very well open without something about the war on terrorism. So one room will be dedicated to combat photography and artwork, showing Marines assisting with recovery at the World Trade Center and fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Alexander wants the nation's next generation of politicians and security advisers to visit museums such as this one, to think about what's going on now and what could happen in future conflicts.
"It might make them think about what the sacrifices are," he said. "Here's what the cost is. is it worth it ? Often it is.
*The formal dedication will be on November 10, 2006 with guests and President Bush in attendance. The museum opens to the public on November 13 and admission is free. The National Museum of the Marine Corps is located in Quantico, Virginia off I-95 and is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit online at www.usmcmuseum.org (http://www.usmcmuseum.org)
The following appeared in the Charlotte Observer today. The story is by Barbara Barrett of the Raleigh News and Observer.
Dedication November 10th
"Museum tries to give taste of Marines at war."
Facility honors Corps' tough tasks, triumphs
Quantico, Va.-- Lance Cpl. Matthew Stephens, who just returned from Iraq, figures that for the new National Museum of the Marine Corps to truly convey his experience in Ramadi, the exhibit hall would have to be the pitch black of night.
Tourists would have to run, dashing across pockmarked pavement in night-vision goggles, aiming their weapons at every window, tensed for any sound that might be either a cat jumping off a wall or six insurgents about to open up. Their hearts would be pounding, their breath coming hard, the hunger and exhaustion long ago faded to leave behind only adrenaline and, maybe, a bit of fear.
That's how it was for Stephens, anyway.
"You'll never fully understand war unless you were there," he said. "It does a number on your mind."
The museum, which opens to the public November 13th, just after Vaterans Day, can't replicate the experiences of Marines, who've served in battle since the Revolutionary War. But it will try.
By leading visitors through darkened exhibits, by piping in the whizzes of bullets and the wash of a chopper's rotor blades, the museum's creators aim to educate visitors about the Marine's work in wars that, often, the grunts themselves didn't fully understand.
There will be oral histories about bloody battles, a notebook of letters home from troops and a wall of coin-sized insignias, one for each of more than 6,000 lives lost at Iwo Jima.
"I think the most important thing this museum can do is put you in the position Marines were in and let you draw your own conclusions," said Lin Ezell, the museum's director. "There's no right or wrong answer. We're not guiding. We're just saying, "This is what happened."
The museum opens as the United States civilian and military leadership is struggling with a difficult war that brings near-daily reports of casualties. At any time, some 25,000 Marines are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and more that 840 have died.
"I think there's two sides to museums,' said Stephens, 20, of Hoover, Alabama. "Number one, there's the experience: "Oh my God, they had to do that ?" Teaching what they're going through.
"And then teaching for the future: "Man, this is what happens when people start wars ?"
The museum began development in 1999, before the attacks of September 11, 2001, plunged the nation into its battle with terrorism. It took years for the Corps' heritage foundation to raise enough millions in a public-private partnership to hire architects, collect artifacts and figure the best way to tell the Marines story.
Founders decided to celebrate the grunts, rather than the generals, and to build on the Corps' long tradition of inspiring young Marines through its history. The museum includes three "immersion" exhibits that attempt to help tourists experience battles in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
Curators spent years gathering artifacts and poring through documents to create the exhibits. The museum reconstructed a bullet-riddled building in Vietnam from an old photograph, and punctured the tire on a howitzer because the tires frequently went flat from flying shrapnel. To re-create the sands of battlefields, curators sent soil samples to the exhibit designers.
The museum holds little from America's current war, but curators already are thinking how best to honor its fighters.
"It's impossible to put into historic perspective what's happening today," Ezell said.
Still, she added, the museum couldn't very well open without something about the war on terrorism. So one room will be dedicated to combat photography and artwork, showing Marines assisting with recovery at the World Trade Center and fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Alexander wants the nation's next generation of politicians and security advisers to visit museums such as this one, to think about what's going on now and what could happen in future conflicts.
"It might make them think about what the sacrifices are," he said. "Here's what the cost is. is it worth it ? Often it is.
*The formal dedication will be on November 10, 2006 with guests and President Bush in attendance. The museum opens to the public on November 13 and admission is free. The National Museum of the Marine Corps is located in Quantico, Virginia off I-95 and is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit online at www.usmcmuseum.org (http://www.usmcmuseum.org)