I was driving to DC when I received a text informing the meeting I was attempting to make was canceled. I just happened to be pretty close to the National Museum of the Marine Corps...so that was an easy decision. Museum tour of convenience! You can see the building from I-95 and I've wanted to visit since I first saw it in 2015. And this was a perfect opportunity. By the way, it's super easy to access from the Interstate and has good signage.
Front of the museum. What a day - perfect temperature (in January) and look at that sky! It was kind of a perfect welcome - plenty of room in the lot, the weather, and my kind of architecture.
Above left is Iron Mike. I like how he looks at the top of the building. This "Making Marines" poster (above center) is one of the first things you see walking into the collections - I thought it fitting. I took a picture of the guy in chem gear simply because chem gear (especially older gear) is always a bit frighting. Aside from looking scary, it also hides the wearer and makes me imagine how bad chem warfare must be.
This was great. The flag in the iconic Iwo Jima picture! There were two flags raised; the iconic shot is the second flag. Both are in the museum, but the the first flag (much smaller) is not yet displayed. The second flag was much bigger (almost twice as large) and the intent was for better visibility on Mount Suribachi. The first flag is 54 x 28 inches and the second (shown above) is 96 x 56 inches. The picture on the Plexiglas is a cool idea and a nice way to view the actual flag behind it. Pretty awesome to see.
This was a somber display and very well done. Each Globe and Anchor represents a Marine lost on Iwo Jima - 5931. That is more than twice of all Marines lost in WWI (and in just 36 days). Put another way, more than 800 Americans gave their life for every square mile of Iwo Jima. A nice addition to the display is how Mount Suribachi is superimposed on the metal squares.
A couple A-4 Skyhawk models.
The museum had some fantastic displays. Of note, the path walks visitors through all the collections and you see everything. In other words, if you follow the path, you don't have to worry about missing anything. Also, the docents are very friendly. This is just one example - Vietnam. You actually enter the room by walking off the back end of the Chinook and leave through the sandbagged tunnel. In the Korean collection, the room was a winter scene and they keep the room colder.
Standing in the atrium - or the Leatherneck Gallery - is a cool experience. Lots of metal and glass which suspended airplanes. The building represents the flag raising on Iwo Jima, so the massive beam running through the Leatherneck Gallery and out the top of the building is essentially a flag mast. Looking up the mast is the picture on the left above. The mast also fills the upper right corner of the picture with the Harrier (above right).
This art is not paint...it's part of the front entrance. I love when concrete is used like this. If I ever build a house, I think it would be nice to incorporate concrete. Simple, strong, and beautiful in its own way. Another think I like is when grass grows right up to the concrete (like in the pic below). I'm not sure why I like that so much. Maybe because if it was wood, it could rot. But it's more likely the contrast. Soft, fuzzy, live grass right into hard, geometric stone. I guess the same holds true for the sky/concrete mix.
This is a view just left of the main entrance. More of the concrete with some rolling hills - very nice atmosphere. You can take the path all the way around the museum and there are historic facts along the way.
If you're in the area and have the time, I highly recommend visiting the museum. Even if you don't have much time you should visit since it's free. No 'guilt' to spend a certain amount of time.
- mm -
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