The US Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum in Quantico, Va., shut its doors Nov. 15, 2002. If you didn't get the chance to visit last year and missed the opportunity to walk in your USMC ancestor's footsteps through World War II and the Korean War, mark your calendars. On Nov. 10, 2005 — the Marines' 230th birthday — the museum will reopen as the Marine Corps Heritage Center. The handsome new center will rise on a 135-acre wooded site just outside the Quantico base's main gates. Features of the 120,000-square-foot main facility will include nine walk-through galleries of Marine Corps history and an IMAX movie theater. The center will be designed by Fentress Bradburn, the architectural firm that created the new Denver airport terminal.

For more information about the US Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum, see <www.marineheritage.org/museum> or call (703) 784-2606. To learn more about the new Heritage Center, see <www.quantico.usmc.mil/heritage/main.htm>.