The National Museum of the Marine Corps was born of an act of Congress, which in the late 1980s appropriated seed money for each branch of the US military to build a national museum. The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation and Naval Facilities held a national design competition to select the museum's architects. Fentress Bradburn Architects emerged as the winner with a design inspired by the heroic flag-raising atop Mount Suriachi on Iwo Jima, the most recognised and enduring symbol of the Marine Corps. This compelling monograph is a collection of essays by those who laboured to bring the National Museum of the Marine Corps from inception to completion. Writers include Colenol Joseph Alexander, General Ron Christmas, Generald Gerald McKay, Colonel Joseph Long and architect Curtis Worth Fentress.