Marines Save the Day

Today's trip to the beach got postponed thanks to Tropical Storm Lee, so my companions and I decided to make the most of a rainy day inside instead.

For lack of a better idea, we decided to go the jarhead route and check out the National Museum of the Marine  Corps.

I'd been there back before the museum opened to do a video shoot and had been curious ever since to go back and see the finished product.

My main memory of that last visit had been of what an interactive experience they were creating for the visitor, even us non-military sorts.

Still, we were probably in the minority since an awful lot of visitors looked like or wore identifying things to show their military backgrounds.

I know exactly one former Marine and he moved to Washington last year, so it seemed unlikely we were going to get up there together.

Instead, the two very un-Marine types and I drove through pelting rain to arrive in Quantico and take a stroll through Marine history.


The U.S. Marine Corps WANTS YOU!
Apply at 633 East Broad Street Richmond, Virginia

That message came courtesy of a a World War II recruiting poster I saw today, one of many, but by far the most relevant to me.

Living where I live now, it would have been an easy walk for me to sign up as a female Marine, if I'd been so inclined (it seems unlikely).

More likely, I would have heeded the newsreels of the day, like the one we saw promoting "American Women Power!" telling my people to do a job on the home front to free up a man to go to war.

Now that I could have done.

You can tell that the museum was built with private funds because no expense was spared; the museum is state of the art and interactive to the max.

Witness the laser firing range. Today's high score: 94%.

From planes hanging from every ceiling to an engraved mess kit (W.M. Marrs, Motor Transport and showing a flag, a cross and an explosive shell)) to guns bigger than me, the museum showed artifacts and photographs from every marine involvement.

Walking the hall towards Vietnam, we saw a woman stop a guard and ask, "Where's the Guadalcanal?" only to be directed there.

Ask for a war zone and ye shall receive.

We stood in a medical transport helicopter before descending to the medical staging area with the sound of explosives going off around us.

The museum is huge with probably eight galleries, all large and chock-a-block with things to look at, including lots of video for the ADD set.

By the time we left, the rain had stopped, we were starving and all of us had gotten something out of the experience.

It was no day at the beach, but maybe a history lesson was more appropriate for the first day of school anyway.