Just in time for their two-hundred and thirty-first birthday tomorrow, Mark Yost writes about the new National Museum of the Marine Corps in an article from yesterday's Wall Street Journal:
Indeed, it's hard to imagine that one collection could adequately capture and convey the 231-year history of what's arguably America's most revered armed force. But thanks to the wonderful design and interactive presentation of just 1,000 of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation's 60,000 historical pieces, this $60 million museum, funded almost entirely by private donations, which officially opens Friday, has done that and more.
From Yost's description, the museum's designers have done the Marines history proud:
Visitors enter through a large atrium that features Marine Corps aircraft suspended in midair and a granite façade etched with the proclamations that have defined the U.S. Marine Corps. Like Col. David Shoup's famous dispatch from the beaches of Tarawa: "Casualties -- Many; Percentage Dead -- Unknown; Combat Efficiency -- We Are Winning." And Adm. Chester Nimitz's statement that at Iwo Jima, "uncommon valor was a common virtue."
It also appears that the museum is a refreshing departure from the trend toward historical revision and relativism that many other institutions have unfortunately followed in recent years:
Yes, make no mistake about it, this is a full-bore, red, white and blue celebration of all the guts and all the glory that have shaped the U.S. Marine Corps. And it couldn't have come at a better time. Clint Eastwood's new film, "Flags of Our Fathers," concentrates disproportionately -- some would say unfairly -- on the negative aspects of the flag raising on Iwo Jima. This museum, which has the original flag on display, revels in it. And rightfully so.
The new museum like sounds like a tribute befitting the spirit of the USMC.
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