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Carolina Marine museum site dedicated

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — The idea to build a museum that would tell the stories of Marines and sailors who’ve served in the Carolinas is almost as old their presence here.

Three years after Camp Lejeune, originally pegged Marine Barracks New River, N.C., was established in 1941, a museum to honor Marines who fought in Guadalcanal was proposed.

More than 60 years and a decade of planning later, the Museum of the Marine is coming to fruition. Roughly 100 people — politicians, donors and retired and active-duty commanders — gathered at the edge of a wooded lot just behind the Beirut Memorial here Thursday to dedicate the site where the museum will stand.

More than $6 million has been raised through public grants, private and corporate donors, progress toward a $28 million goal. A design has been chosen for the museum, which will include three galleries that will take visitors from the Corps’ origins in the Carolinas to the present.

Retired Maj. Gen. Ray Smith, founder and past chairman of the Board Museum of the Marine, recalled when he formed an ad-hoc board of directors before he retired in the late 1990s.

“We have had our ups and downs in the 10 years since that took place,” he said. “This event today marks the end of all that worry and doubt. We have momentum. Funds are flowing in. We will build the Museum of the Marine, I swear to God.”

For more information about the museum visit the museum's Web site.