Marine Corps Museum

-- A Marine Corps museum scheduled to break ground in a year will feature a 210-foot tilted spire meant to evoke the flag-raising at Iwo Jima during World War II.

The mast, inclined at a 45-degree angle, is the most striking feature of the museum's glass atrium design. ``When people see the sketches of the atrium, about a third pick up on it immediately -- that's a stylized rendition of the flag-raising,'' said Col. Joe Long, the Marines' project manager for the museum, which will be on the Marine base at Quantico.

Workers will break ground on the $50 million Marine Corps Museum in April 2003. It is expected to be finished in 2005. Long said he expects the museum to draw 250,000 to 400,000 visitors a year.

A smaller museum on the base now draws about 30,000 visitors a year and displays only a fraction of the artifacts that will be exhibited at the new institution. Curtis Fentress, whose firm, Fentress Bradburn Architects, won a design competition for the project last year, said the architects immersed themselves in Marine Corps history.

He said the famous Associated Press photo of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima, the angle of howitzers, and the way the fighting men hold their rifles all suggested the 45-degree angle. ``We really tried to absorb what it was to be a Marine,'' Fentress said. The museum will also be designed to give people a taste of what it was like to be a Marine in different eras.

The Vietnam room, for instance, will be hot and humid, like the jungle. The Korea room will be cold, just as it was in the months after the Marine landing at Inchon in 1950.

The mast will emerge from a 160-foot-high glass atrium. The building must be designed to handle a terrorist attack. ``It's a challenge for the engineers. It's going to be a challenge for the contractor to build,'' said Jerry Rasgus, project manager for Weidlinger Associates, the engineering firm on the contract.

A new Army museum nearby at Fort Belvoir is slated for completion in 2009. It is expected to draw up to 1 million visitors a year.

Jeb Bennett, director of Army museums, said the two institutions will complement each other and anchor a corridor of historical sites along Interstate 95 and U.S. 1, including Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, and Gunston Hall, home of founding father George Mason.

Response from Ray "Doc" Fornof
Doc666USMC@aol.com

New Museum at Quantico, Virginia by Ray "Doc" Fornof Ray "Doc" Fornof (no login)

Aloha,
The New Marine Museum at Quantica, Virginia sounds great and is really needed.

However, more emphasis needs to be shown for our Heroic Assault Squad that raised the First Flag there at Mt. Suribachi in Iwo Jima on 23 February, 1945.

We have had enough about those that raised the larger, replacement Flag some four hours after the mountain had become a little more secure for it to be accomplished.

Remember, This was the First Foreign Flag to ever be raised on the Japan Homeland and signaled the eventual defeat of the Japanese Empire.

Recognize 1st Lt. Harold Schrier, the Assault Mission Commanding Officer, his Platoon Sgt. "Boots" Thomas and Sgt. Henry O Hansen as those that raised that 1st Flag.

Then, Cpl. Charles Lindberg, Pfc. James Michels, Pfc. Lou Charlo and Pfc. Raymond Jacobs, the Radioman, that all assisted, after the pole had been raised upright to the vertical position.

Our Old Glory signaling to everyone below that Our Victory was inevitable.

"Semper Fidelis",
Ray "Doc" Fornof

FYI

Run Date: 04/02/2002
Local Corps lore focus of (NC Marine) Museum
By ERIC STEINKOPFF
JDNEWS.COM
DAILY NEWS STAFF

The planned Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas won’t try to compete with a massive
Marine Corps-sponsored museum proposed for Quantico, Va., organizers said Monday.

Instead, the downtown Jacksonville-based museum will spotlight a portion of Marine Corps
history stretching from Cherry Point to Beaufort, S.C. and all points in-between.

Joe Houle, a retired Marine Corps sergeant major who is serving as executive director of the
Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas, said the Northern Virginia facility, which will cost
$50 million and be located along the I-95 corridor, will serve as a comprehensive museum
telling the Marine Corps story from 1775 to present. The $7 million to $10 million
Jacksonville museum will be a more down-home effort with a large focus on Camp Lejeune,
Camp Johnson, Camp Geiger and New River Air Station.

“The difference between their museum and ours is that we will include the history of Marines
and sailors from the Carolinas from 1941 to present,” Houle said. “Ours is a community
effort owned by the residents of Jacksonville and Onslow County, not Headquarters
Marine Corps.”

Preliminary plans for the Jacksonville museum show a large brick building with pillars bordering
the entrance at the center and include a skylight along the peak of the roof on the
longitudinal axis of the structure. The museum would be between 20,000 and 40,000 square

feet and is being planned in conjunction with a downtown convention center and hotel
complex off U.S. 17.

Houle said organizers hope to open the museum in the fall of 2004.

At the heart of the museum will be stories pertaining to the II Marine Expeditionary Force,
which includes the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing and 2nd Force Service
Support Group, as well as elements of the 1st Marine Division that trained in the area in
preparation for World War II.

Houle said that he anticipates a modest equipment display of one or two aircraft, a tank, an
artillery piece and various examples of small arms, because there will be an emphasis on
virtual displays and animation.

“We envision that a visitor entering a room would break a light beam to start a sequence,”
Houle said. “An image would appear of someone who could tell the story of a battle or an era.”

The Jacksonville effort is still in the fund-raising stage. Houle said organizers are gathering
donations locally before they seek state or federal matching funds.

“We are planning more fund-raisers throughout the year, and the Knight Wagon will be out
selling hot dogs and hamburgers at local functions,” Houle said.

Organizers have been busy in the community in an attempt to sell bricks engraved with the
donator’s name or logo, as well as more traditional fund-raising dinners and functions.

“We have raised nearly $3 million in donations and pledges locally and have sold roughly
$40,000 in bricks,” Houle said. “We have waited to go nationally with our fund-raising efforts
to make sure that the site for the museum was set in stone.”

For more information, contact the museum at (910) 937-0033, write to them at Marine Corps
Museum of the Carolinas, P.O. Box 1046, Jacksonville, N.C. 28541 or visit their Web
site at www.mcmuseum.com.

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