Earlier this week, while it was cold and rainy, we spent the day at the United States Marine Corps Museum.  This is free!  Also there are great interactive displays about boot camp, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. When we first walked in, my son immediately found this plane.  He has a model of this Corsair, called Whistling Death. He told me that when it flew close to the enemy to attack, the enemy could hear it whistle. Then I told him about Pappy Boyington and his squadron of Black Sheep, who flew Corsairs.  At this point, a docent came over and my son asked lots of questions about Corsairs. Later, in the WWII section, we got to see a display on Pappy Boyington.  

     I looked high and low for the history of the beginnings of the USMC.  That was not easy to find.  When we drove into the parking lot, I noticed that the building number was 1775.  Hmmmm....would that be the year they began? Yes!  One of the docents confirmed that! ;) Since it began in 1775, I was especially interested in finding a display on their beginnings. The American Revolution is my favorite historical era, in case you didn't know. ;)  

      When we left the boot camp display, we found a section of the museum that is being built...the history of the USMC beginnings! There were a few signs that explained their beginnings and one great display. I tried to get a picture of it but it was too dark.  It is from 1775 and shows the Marines in the upper riggings of a ship.  

     Upstairs I found this display of one of the Marine's first ventures to the Bahamas in 1775.

     There is a lot here and we never had time to do it all.  We'll definitely come back when we study WWII, Korea and Vietnam next year. We hit the highlights and one that definitely got my attention was the Iwo Jima interactive exhibit.  The story of the battle and how the flag flew over Mt. Surabachi is a great one with which my kids are familiar.  We've been to so many museums with timers outside the doors, that when we saw this one, we automatically thought...great, a chance to sit down and see a movie. Ha!

     Well, a man asked a group of us if we were ready and we said yes. (Famous last words.)  We walked in and he showed us actual footage of a surveillance map of Iwo Jima and told us the geophysical characteristics of the island and our objective.  (Objective?  I came in here to see a movie.) Then he walked out the door and shut us in. (gulp)  Did I mention that this room was dark with a bluish hue? I felt like I was in a movie or the JAG tv show and on a sub or a ship.  The actual footage of the map of Iwo Jima showed all the angles of the island and we were told in explicit detail why this stinky, sulpheric rock was strategic, that the Japanese were all hidden with an extensive network of armament and communications under the ground and how we needed to access and conquer the island. (Um, precisely how interactive is this to be?)

     Another door opened and there was the man again. He ushered us into that room...onto a boat.  After a few instructions, which I missed, he left us and shut the door again. All above us we could see the waves rolling, the aircraft and artillery overhead, and feel the craft moving, rolling, pitching...causing me to lose my balance!  No, I wasn't sea sick. I just couldn't stand up steadily! Since my husband was at work, I grabbed onto my son...who kept leaning away from me.  I kept leaning on him and he kept leaning further away. I couldn't tell him what the problem was without interrupting the program. During major head surgery several years ago, my balance nerve was cut and I had to learn how to walk again. Now I do pretty well with my balance...until I am unexectedly put on a ship bound for Iwo Jima!  Later, when we were done with the "activity", my son told me the ship wasn't moving at all! It was merely the visual aspect of seeing moving waves and aircraft in the sky that were tricking my brain...which I need to function at full capacity for my balance to work! 

      Seeing this made me feel at home. The American Revolution had Captain John Paul Jones from Fredericksburg, Virginia. World War II had Admiral Chester Nimitz from Fredericksburg, Texas!  He grew up in a hotel there that is shaped like a ship. Today it is the Pacific War Museum.  It was incredible to read quotes from famous men of the various services who gave high praise to the Marines.  The Marines, who are the first to enter the danger zone, and arrive by air, land or sea, have consistently cleared the way for other armed services to go in and do their job.  To the Marines and all the other armed services who have served our country bravely so that we may be free...thank you!