Courtyard

Directly outside the gift shop is the museum Courtyard, a spacious gathering place bordered by woods and two converging streams. Like the Great Hall, the Courtyard is the perfect location for a variety of social and ceremonial functions. It is large enough to hold a party tent or to be configured for smaller gatherings: memorial services or retirement ceremonies and other milestone celebrations.

 

This manicured terrace can also be a place of quiet reflection, centered on the Remembrance Memorial, its central feature. The memorial consists of a cairn and gas-lit eternal flame: a perpetual reminder of the service and sacrifices of the Carolina Marines. Radiating outward from the memorial are three semicircular wall sections with attached benches. Each of the three inner benches displays an inscription: “Corps,” “Community” and “Carolinas.”

 

The Courtyard perimeter will have five permanently lit flagpoles bearing the American flag, the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy colors, and the North Carolina state and Prisoner of War flags.

 

Beyond the Courtyard perimeter stand custom-designed memorials funded by organizations wishing to honor their dead.