NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE US MARINE

After National Bookfest in September 2009, we decided to go to the exit of the strange building we kept seeing for a few years. I thought it was some funky project that never ended, thinking the spire at the top was a crane, while my husband thought it was some kind of solar building project while my son thought it was some office building. We discovered that is was a museum... and a nice one at that. We went inside, hoping it'd not be too expensive as we tapped out after a long weekend at Bookfest, but discovered to out delight it was FREE. Outside the Smithsonian, this is the nicest, free museum I've ever encountered. It's not only new and pristine shape, but it's rather large, with a lot of exhibits. The most striking thing to me were the mannequins, who were posed in real life poses, looked fairly real and the vignettes were realistic, really gritty at times, as the way life would be. It's not just static displays of aircraft or artillery but some interaction, photos, and other interesting things to see and do. Inside the museum is a great gift shop with really nice items and a nice restaurant, which serves sweet potato fries with your sandwich unless you tell them otherwise (we're not fans, but these were better than most and I kind of liked them). There are restrooms and water fountains. You can walk the grounds (I don't know if there was anything much out there other than a couple statues etc) but there is quite a lot of walking inside. Artifacts are in galleries of various eras, like the Vietnam War, WWI, WWII and the current wars. The time we went was a special display, Ohio Lima Company's memorial, depicting 8 life-sized oil paintings that capture the spirit and personalities of

Lima Company Marines killed on the Iraq war’s deadliest days. Painted by artists Anita Miller, It took two years to paint the 6-foot-by-8-foot portraits and travelled to various museums, state capitols. Here's some photos of this great museum:

Left to right: 1) Outside view of the museum; very distinctive 2) This is part of the temporary display-a long mural in 8 sections of a group of soldiers killed in Afghanistan. This was one of the most moving things I've ever seen. It's their real boots (and you can even see blood on some). 3) Statue of "Iron Mike" 4) Plane in the lobby above your head 5) a smaller plane above your head...

Left to right: 1) one of the panels of the Lima Company Memorial 2) another panel of Lima company boys 3) three panels of Lima Company (didn't get them all but there are some on the backside too) 4) a 4th panel of some of the men and 5) even more of the great men from Lima Company who gave their lives for us.

Left to right: 1) a tank 2) snow vignette fighting in the mountains 3) in the main rotunda a bi-plane 4) a gallery sign leading you to a gallery and a helicopter

Left to right: 1) vignette and a movie to watch 2) old time marines in a crows nest (Revolutionary war) 3) another vignette of a fighting machine 4) Korean War era helicopter

Left to right: 1) Amphibious Tank 2) Another view of a plane/helicopter in the main rotunda/lobby 3) Jason checking out a jeep 4) a vignette depicting wounded soldiers

Left to right: 1) Korean War vignette 2) Medic zipping a body bag 3) "Onto" vehicle 4) Helicopter

Left to right: 1) Weapons 2) stuffed dog and MP 3) artillery vignette 4) Getting ready to "fire!" vignette after a landing.