Heritage foundation
10/9/06
5:00 PM
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THE MUSEUM
THE MARINE CORPS HERITAGE FOUNDATION
By Craig Collins
W
hile it supports the inauguration of the National Museum of the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s other historical programs are flourishing. In 1981, in an article entitled “Why a Marine Corps Historical Foundation?” published in the Marine Corps Gazette by Maj. Gen. Donald M. Weller (USMC-Ret.) bluntly addressed a question that was apparently on the minds of some in the Corps. “A Marine Corps Historical Foundation was established in early 1979,” Weller began, “and some Marines are probably wondering why such an organization is necessary.” The Marine Corps, after all, had its own History and Museums Division, charged with pursuing the historical interests of the Corps. At the time, Weller explained, the historians of the History and Museums Division’s Historical Branch were
laboring to record the Corps’ experience in the Vietnam War – and there simply weren’t enough people to handle the workload. The branch consisted of a chief historian and six others, three of whom were Marine officers serving regular duty at Marine Corps Headquarters. As a government entity, the History and Museums Division could not solicit funds to support Marine Corps-related research by non-official historians. It could accept non-solicited funds to a research grant fund, but in the five years before the Historical Foundation was established, this fund brought in less than $2,000 a year. “It’s clear,” Weller wrote, “that the Historical Branch can use all the help it can get.” When the Marine Corps Historical Foundation, under the leadership of the former commandant, Gen. Wallace Greene, stepped in to augment the efforts of the Historical Branch, its aims were modest. It established a
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