Ambassadors and 6-year olds

This is another recent photo I took of the museum around 6 p.m.

Well, as usuall, I have some interesting and cute, mostly cute, stories to tell you about the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

The other day, I noticed a man along with his sons (high school, college age) taking a look at the Corsairs we have in the Leatherneck gallery, so I told them about the differences and started telling them about the other aircraft in the museum. Turns out the guy is New Zealand's Deputy Ambassador to the United States. A Marine General recommended he visit the museum. Of course, Marine Corps World War 2 History is all in the Pacific. He was excited to see a New Zealand artifact in the timeline in Legacy walk - - the baseball used in the first ever baseball game in New Zealand, played by Marines in 1943. I'll have to remember to take a photo of it and add it here later. He was very impressed with the museum. I was so glad that he and his sons were having a good visit.

That same day another father and his two sons came in for a visit. The boys were about 4 and 6. As they started to walk into the orientation film, the 6 year old said, "Dad, I don't want to watch TV, I want to look at the displays."

These two little boys were so excited to be at the museum. The oldest asked me all about the HRS-1 helicopter and had his dad write down information (apparently, they look stuff up on the internet later - - these are obviously very smart little boys!) Yep, I think I may have met a future Commandant of the Marine Corps.

I ran into them again in the Vietnam gallery - - they asked me questions about the war dog. So I told them about that and the booby traps and I pointed out the A-4 and we ran into that gallery (you know 4 and 6 year old boys have very short attention spans and run back and forth) Well after checking out the model of the air field at Chu Lai, we headed into Hue City where the Ontos is.

I said, "In this next room, there is a really cool vehicle that is similar to a tank!"

The 6 year old held his hand up in the international sign that means "Stop" and says, "We've been here before and we want to do this by ourselves."

Nuts! They were so excited! I was so bummed!

I love seeing young kids getting excited about this stuff.