QUANTICO, VA. - Lance Cpl. Matthew Stephens, who returned to Camp Lejeune from Iraq just last month, figures that for the new National Museum of the Marine Corps to truly convey his experience in Ramadi, the exhibit hall would have to be the pitch black of night.

Tourists would have to run, dashing across pockmarked pavement in night-vision goggles, aiming their weapons at every window, tensed for any sound that might be either a cat jumping off a wall or six insurgents about to open up.

Their hearts would be pounding, their breath coming hard, the hunger and exhaustion long ago faded to leave only adrenaline and, maybe, a bit of fear.

That, anyway, is how it was for Stephens.

"You'll never fully understand war unless you were there," he said. "It does a number on your mind."

The museum, which opens to the public Nov. 13, just after Veterans Day, can't replicate the experiences of Marines who have served in battle since the Revolutionary War.

But it will try.

By leading visitors through darkened exhibits, piping in the whizzes of bullets and the wash of a chopper's rotor blades, the museum's creators aim to educate visitors about the Marines' work in wars that, often, the grunts themselves didn't fully understand.

There will be oral histories about bloody battles, a notebook of letters home from troops, a wall of coin-sized insignias, one for each of more than 6,000 lives lost in Iwo Jima.

"I think the most important thing this museum can do is put you in the position Marines were in and let you draw your own conclusions," said Lin Ezell, the museum's director. "There's no right or wrong answer. We're not guiding. We're just saying, 'This is what happened.' "

The museum opens as the United States' civilian and military leadership is struggling with a war that brings near-daily reports of casualties. At any time, 25,000 Marines are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and more than 840 have died.

More than 230 of those were from North Carolina or were stationed at Camp Lejeune.

"I think there's two sides to museums," said Stephens, 20, of Hoover, Ala. "Number one, there's the experience: 'Oh my God, they had to do that?' Teaching what they're going through.

"And then teaching for the future: 'Man, this is what happens when people start wars?' "

Planning for the $90 million Marines museum began in 1999, long before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It took years for the Corps' heritage foundation to raise the millions in a public-private partnership to hire architects, collect artifacts, figure the best way to tell the Marines' story.

Founders decided to celebrate the grunts, rather than the generals, and to build on the Corps' long tradition of inspiring young Marines through its history. The museum includes three "immersion" exhibits that attempt to help visitors experience battles in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

What you'll see

There may be a lot of traffic from North Carolina. Camp Lejeune, some three hours southeast of Raleigh, is one of the service's largest bases. Just north of Lejeune is Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.

Visitors traveling north on Interstate 95 first will be struck by the museum's architecture, a twisting pyramid of glass and steel soaring skyward at an angle that evokes the famous image of the Iwo Jima flag-raising in World War II.

Inside, visitors walk into the expansive "Leatherneck Gallery," a towering atrium strung with Marines aircraft and surrounded by famous quotes etched high in the stone walls.

"Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?" reads one from 1st Sgt. Dan Daly, yelling to his men during a charge in World War I. Ezell expects the gallery will be a place of reflection, especially for older veterans.

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