A few weeks ago, Jonathan and I had a house call to pick up a collection near Richmond, Virginia. We decided after we drove through Washington, DC., we would stop at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia. I had driven by it many times in the past but never stopped. It happened to be February 19, the anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, so it was a good day for the visit.

I was a bit tired when we arrived, but soon woke up as we walked through the entrance and saw a Corsair hanging from the ceiling, a biplane, as well as a Hellcat and a Harrier jet. There were also vehicles set up in various scenarios, including a Pacific Island landing with Marines fighting from an LVT. Although we only had a couple of hours until closing, we took our time going through each section of the museum. It is laid out by period, and each section has many interesting things to see. The highlight for me was the first and second Iwo Jima flags which are not out on display all of the time. If you haven’t been and are in the area, it’s certainly well worth it. Having been to the army museum at Ft. Belvoir, it does seem they used this museum as a basis for what was done there.

The next day we went to pick up a collection. To say I was blown away is an understatement. There was more Marine Corps and Navy material than I have ever seen in one place! It took most of the day to load up the van and start heading north again. I’m looking forward to going through all of the boxes of stuff and seeing what we took. There was so much it was hard to focus; We will actually heading back to pick up more items soon. I’ll write about some of the great objects in the collection in coming blogs.

On the way home, we picked up another collection of muskets and swords in New York state. It was on the west side of the Hudson River near West Point and was a really nice ride. We picked up some very cool things, and with all of the material we picked up in Virginia, we could barely fit this stuff in the van. We seriously thought we were going to have to ditch our carry-on bags and jam our clothes under the seats to make it back!

Next week we head down to Maryland for the annual Baltimore Antique Arms show which is always a great time - as well as one of the last remaining big shows with lots of great early arms and militaria!