Remembering the Marines

Today Lady Hiva and I went to the National Marine Museum in Quantico. It was a perfect way to spend the holiday. The museum is free, but so well done it would be worth it to pay for it.

The museum has realistic replicas of all the wars the United States Marine Corps were involved in from the beginning of the United States on large sailing ships to today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are rooms for the children to explore history hands on and there are beautiful rooms to show the history of the men and women who fought in some perilous wars. There were portions hard to read because history was brutal—brutal for people on all sides.There are winter rooms, complete with cold weather for the Korean war, there is a jungle for Vietnam, a forest for Europe, and a warm desert room for the wars in the Middle East.

The exhibits displayed the history unbiased. There are wars our countrymen fought in that everyone didn’t agree with then, nor do they support now. But the reality is, there were our brothers and sisters defending what they believe is equality for mankind. Lady Hiva and were especially interested to see the way they represented all the wars in Asia. As hard as it was to read about those wars, having been to those countries and seeing it first hand, the museum definitely had a watered down version of what all of those soldiers went through.

 I will never say that I believe war or violence is the answer to any problem, but I can say that seeing the displays would give anyone a sense of pride.  

(Sorry the photos are blurry, they are from the phone--we forgot the camera)