When Nathan, Carolyn and I were brainstorming places to see in Virginia a couple of nights ago, they mentioned the National Museum of the Marine Corps. I had never heard of it. I'm glad they told me about it, because I visited it today and gained a greater appreciation for the marines!
-- Marine Corp Museum --
The National Museum of the Marine Corp is very well laid out, and covers the history of the marine's involvement in both military and humanitarian missions.
I started by watching a 37 minute movie titled, "We, the Marines," on a big screen. The movie is narrated by Gene Hackman, who himself was a marine. Or more properly, who is (not was) a marine, for as I learned today, once you're a marine, you're a marine all your life. It is a lifetime commitment to the marine values and ideals.
If anyone has the chance to see the movie, I recommend it. It's a good recruitment film, and if you or a loved one are a marine, it will make you proud. Click here for a link to the official IMAX movie trailer.
The movie shows the life of marine recruits going through basic training -- arriving by bus at night, meeting their drill instructor, getting their head shaved, marching and getting trained. They train for combat, and learn to overcome fear and work together. The culmination is a final test called the crucible. It's 58 hours, 48 miles of marching, little sleep and limited rations.
The movie also gives some marine history, describing the bravery at Belleau Wood during WWI and Iwo Jima during WWII. It also shows what officer training is like at Quantico, touches on some of the specialized training at other bases, and finishes with marines coming home to family and loved ones.
Below are a few screen shots I took during the movie -- jumping from planes, training underwater, mid-air fueling, never leaving another marine behind, helicopters missions, and homecoming.
The museum allows you to walk through a timeline of marine involvement from the 1700s until now, complete with military equipment, weapons, dioramas, photographs, and text describing events.
I enjoyed the museum and gained greater respect for the marines. They are trained to be ready to leave on a moments notice without knowing where they will be sent.
-- Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum --
The museum is housed in a huge hangar near the Dulles airport. Among other things, items on display include a SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft, the Space Shuttle Discovery, the Enola Gay, and a Concorde supersonic airliner.
The SR-71 was developed in the 1960s during the Cold War. It operated at high speeds (Mach 3.2) and high altitudes (85,000 ft). It was fast enough and could fly high enough to outrun any threats. If a missile was detected, standard procedure was to accelerate and outrun the missile. On it's last flight, this airplane flew from Los Angeles to Washington D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes, 10 seconds, for an average of 2,124 miles per hour!
The space shuttle Discovery successfully flew 39 earth-orbital missions between 1984 and 2011. It was the longest-serving space shuttle, and spent a total of 365 days in space.
The Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress propeller-driven bomber. On August 6, 1945, this airplane dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Below is a panoramic view of the Enola Gay's cockpit.
The Concorde was the first supersonic airliner. It started passenger service for Air France and British Airways in 1976. It could carry up to 100 passengers and fly across the Atlantic in less than 4 hours.
The museum has a lot more airplanes, as well as helicopters and satellites on display.
A restoration hangar has planes in the process of being restored.
One example is a WWII B-26 bomber named Flak-Bait. It can be seen in the background, above, and in more detail, below. It survived over 200 missions in Europe during WWII.
Bombs painted on Flak-Bait's fuselage count the missions flown, painted ducks count missions where Flak-Bait was used as a decoy to divert the enemy from other targets, and the swastika is for the only confirmed kill of a German fighter in the air.
I enjoyed both museums today. Tonight I'm sleeping in a Costco parking lot in Chantilly, Virginia. I plan to take the nearby orange line metro into Washington, D.C., tomorrow.
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