The National Museum of the Marine Corps
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Closest available address
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18900 Jefferson Davis Highway Triangle, VA 22172
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Open 9-5 all year except Christmas.
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877-635-1775
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1 day
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July 2012
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All year
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$0-9
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Triangle
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Virginia
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Website
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Educational
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Military Museums
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First review
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The National Museum of the Marine Corps is the official museum of the US Marine Corps and is owned by a public/private partnership. The museum opened in 2006 and is approximately 120,000 square feet. In addition to the museum exhibits, the 135 acre facility includes a chapel, statues and monuments and two restaurants. The museum is located next to a Marine Corps base and is easily accessible via Interstate 95.
The museum is housed in an impressive and inspiring building designed to resemble the iconic moment in the Battle of Iwo Jima when Marines raised the US flag on Mount Suribachi. The building includes major pavilions covering key conflicts that shaped the Marine Corps history and ethos, such as both World Wars and the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. An 80,000 square foot expansion is intended to cover the period from 1975 to the present and is planned to open in 2015-2016.
This museum is world class in content, scope and entertainment value. Exhibits start with the beginnings of the Corps in the Revolutionary War and continue through the Vietnam War. They typically include period weapons and life-sized recreations of Marines in combat situations. The museum is a bit like being in an extended video game as it continually dazzles with videos, sounds and sites of various Marine deployments and engagements. There also is an extensive timeline of both Marine Corps and world history that one could spend several hours reading. Not to be missed is a reproduction of the boot camp rite of passage and a mock rifle range using a laser pointer. The exhibits are unabashedly pro-Marine, but it is after all a museum built in their honor. A visit here is time well spent and will have strong general interest. Free guided 2 hour tours are typically offered on a daily basis.
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