New Life-Size Cast Figures Arrive at National Museum of the Marine Corps

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Media Invited for First Look at Museum Expansion
TRIANGLE, Va.--(Business Wire)--
New exhibit installations at the National Museum of the Marine Corps are in full
swing as preparations continue for the opening of three new galleries in June
2010. Twelve new life-size cast figures will take their places in their
permanent home as they are installed in the Museum`s numerous tableaus, exhibits
and aircraft. Members of the media are invited to preview three of these cast
figures and meet several Marines from the U.S. Marine Corps Base in Quantico, VA
who sat for the castings. This will also be the first opportunity for the media
to get an early look at the three new large-scale galleries with exhibits
interpreting the legendary founding of the Corps in 1775, the Civil War and the
U.S. global trade expansion in the 19th century and World War I.

The new exhibits will include an additional immersive experience, for which the
Museum has become world renowned. Visitors will enter a stretch of forest in
western France amidst the Battle of Belleau Wood, encountering a German machine
gun nest. With the smell of cordite in the air and the sound of bullets
whistling above their heads, visitors will experience the charge of Marines
across a wheat field, just as it happened on June 6, 1918. The official opening
of these new exhibits coincides with the 92nd anniversary of the historic Battle
of Belleau Wood.

Months ago, local Marines undertook an arduous process, one that isn`t covered
in boot camp training: having plaster molds made of their bodies for the cast
figures to be displayed throughout the new galleries. Briefed with their
figure`s story and expression, the models posed for three to four hours to
create a cast that looks "real." With the figures fully molded, painted, clothed
and ready for display, several of those same Marines will be on hand to see how
they have helped bring the Museum`s exhibitions to life. The new cast figures
will join the 62 already on display at the Museum.

WHAT: Media availability and photo opportunity of new cast figures at the National Museum of
the Marine Corps.

WHEN: Thursday, April 29, 2010
10:30 a.m.

WHERE: The National Museum of the Marine Corps
18900 Jefferson Davis Highway
Triangle, VA 22172

To attend this special media opportunity, please contact Gwenn Adams at
703-784-6134, gwenn.adams@usmc.mil.

For more information on the National Museum of the Marine Corps, visit
www.usmcmuseum.org.

For Marine Corps Heritage Foundation
Gwenn Adams, 703-784-6134
Public Affairs
Gwenn.adams@usmc.mil

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