Calling All Jarheads!

The Marine Corps gets their very own museum. Located in Quantico, Virginia, the brand new and very large museum uses all the latest cutting edge technology to tell the story of the Corps.

QUANTICO, Va. - From the highway, the National Museum of the Marine Corps beckons to visitors, its 210-foot-tall steel spire cutting through the sky, evoking the historic flag-raising at Iwo Jima.

Inside, visitors can experience that iconic World War II moment, landing on the black sand beaches of Iwo Jima and viewing one of the flags raised atop Mount Suribachi and captured on film by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.

The sensory display is one of three immersive exhibits in the 118,000 square-foot museum that use sound, lighting and even temperature changes to help viewers experience moments in Marine Corps history firsthand.

"We're telling our stories not with just objects," said Lin Ezell, the director of the museum about 25 miles south of Washington, D.C. "We're using the cutting-edge technology of the museum business to help bring those stories alive."

But the objects are there — more than 1,000 of them, including the UH-1E "Huey" helicopter that was piloted by then Capt. Stephen Pless, who received the Medal of Honor for rescuing Army soldiers during the Vietnam War. Fighter aircraft, including an AV-8 Harrier and the FG-1 and F4U Corsair, are suspended from the thatched glass and metal roof of the museum's Leatherneck Gallery — a circular entryway surrounded by quotes about the Corps chiseled in marble.

The $90 million museum features a fast-track timeline on the Marines, exhibits on World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and an area dedicated to what it is like to ship off to boot camp to become a Marine.

The museum also features a temporary exhibit on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan told through the lenses of combat cameras. On view are photos of Marines handing out cotton candy to Iraqi children, a close-up of a Marine's weathered fingers wrapped around the trigger of his weapon. Other pictures show the sun illuminating the body of a fallen Iraqi insurgent, his mouth agape and his weapon by his side.

The graphic pictures are among a short list of images and exhibits that show the nature of warfare — a topic from which museum officials don't shy away.

There will be a dedication ceremony on Friday. Here's the website for the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation that has a lot of information (and pictures) of the new museum. Congratulations, Marines. You deserve this. The museum will officially open to the public on November 13, 2006.

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