We understand the importance of preserving the legacy of Carolina Marines and Sailors and are excited to enhance that mission with The Civic Institute - an educational component founded by General Al Gray, 29th Commandant - that will teach citizens of all ages about the ideals that are the foundation of our nation as so ably demonstrated by Marines since 1775. Courses will be offered on location at schools and businesses, online and - when the museum is completed - onsite.

 by LtCol Lynn "Kim" Kimball, USMC (Ret)

On 10 May 1940, the Nazi blitzkrieg, achieving complete tactical and strategic surprise, thundered through and over the erst-while neutral Low Countries. Unprepared, ill-equipped and vastly outmanned, the Netherlands struggled heroically but futilely, collapsing completely by 15 May and surrendering, the royal family and the government having fled to England on the 13^th. The scattered remnants of their armed forces, those that hadn’t escaped to England, were in the most part in the Dutch East Indies defending their most prized and important overseas possession. They likewise were over whelmed by the Japanese and surrendered on Java on 9 March 1942.

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The Board of Directors and staff of Carolina Museum of the Marine and Civic Institute are proud of board member and Collections Chairperson Lisa Potts, this year's Grand Marshal for the Onslow County Veterans Day Parade. Read more about CWO5 Potts and her lifelong service to nation and community. See why she is undisputedly a great choice for Grand Marshal. Read more...

November 2, 1962 - During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy announced on TV, "the Soviet bases in Cuba are being dismantled, their missiles and related equipment being crated, and the fixed installations at these sites are being destroyed."

November 3, 1948 - Dewey Defeats Truman banner headline appeared on the front page of the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Harry Truman actually defeated Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey for the presidency.

November 4, 1862 - Richard Gatling patented his first rapid-fire machine-gun which used revolving barrels rotating around a central mechanism to load, fire, and extract the cartridges.

November 4, 1979 - About 500 young Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, Iran, and took 90 hostages, including 52 Americans that they held captive for 444 days.

November 5, 1911 - Aviator C.P. Snow completed the first transcontinental flight across America, landing at Pasadena, California. He had taken off from Sheepshead Bay, New York, on September 17th and flew a distance of 3,417 miles.

November 6, 1860 - Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th U.S. President and the first Republican. He received 180 of 303 possible electoral votes and 40 percent of the popular vote.

November 7, 1944 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to an unprecedented fourth term, defeating Thomas E. Dewey. Roosevelt died less than a year later on April 12, 1945.

November 10, 1775 - The U.S. Marine Corps was established as part of the U.S. Navy. It became a separate unit on July 11, 1789.

November 10, 1871 - Explorer Henry M. Stanley found missionary David Livingstone at Ujiji, Africa. Stanley began his search the previous March for Livingstone who had been missing for two years. Upon locating him, he simply asked, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

November 11th - Celebrated in the U.S. as Veterans Day (formerly called Armistice Day) with parades and military memorial ceremonies.

November 11, 1972 - The U.S. turned over its military base at Long Binh to the South Vietnamese, symbolizing the end of direct American military participation in the Vietnam War.

November 13, 1942 - The five Sullivan Brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, were lost in the sinking of the cruiser USS Juneau by a Japanese torpedo off Guadalcanal during World War II in the Pacific. Following their deaths, the U.S. Navy changed regulations to prohibit close relatives from serving on the same ship.

November 13, 1956 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.

November 14, 1889 - Newspaper reporter Nellie Bly set out from New York to beat the record of Jules Verne's imaginary hero Phileas Fogg, who traveled around the world in 80 days. Bly (pen name for Elizabeth Cochrane) returned 72 days later to a tumultuous welcome in New York.

November 15, 1777 - The Articles of Confederation were adopted by Continental Congress.

November 16, 1933 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the U.S. and Soviet Russia had resumed diplomatic relations, suspended since 1919.

November 17, 1800 - The U.S. Congress met for the first time in the new capital at Washington, D.C. President John Adams then became the first occupant of the Executive Mansion, later renamed the White House.

November 17, 1993 - NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 234 to 200.

November 20, 1789 - New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.

November 20, 1943 - The Battle of Tarawa began in the Pacific War as American troops attacked the Japanese on the heavily fortified Gilbert Islands. It took eight days for the 5th Amphibious Corps, 2nd Marine Division and the 27th Infantry Division to take Tarawa and the Makin Islands. Over 1,000 Americans were killed with 2,311 wounded. The Japanese lost 4,700 men.

November 26, 1789 - The first American holiday occurred, proclaimed by President George Washington to be Thanksgiving Day, a day of prayer and public thanksgiving in gratitude for the successful establishment of the new American republic.

November 28, 1943 - The Teheran Conference began, attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin. Among the major topics discussed, a second front in Western Europe, resulting in D-Day, the seaborne invasion of Normandy in northern France on June 6, 1944.

November 30, 1782 - A provisional peace treaty was signed between Great Britain and the United States heralding the end of America's War of Independence. The final treaty was signed in Paris on September 3, 1783. It declared the U.S. "...to be free, sovereign and independent states..." and that the British Crown "...relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof."

BGen Dick Vercauteren, USMC (Ret) - Chairman

Mr. Mark Cramer, JD - Vice Chairman

CAPT Pat Alford, USN (Ret) - Treasurer

Col Joe Atkins, USAF (Ret) - Secretary

Col John B. Sollis, USMC (Ret) - Immediate Past Chairman

General Al Gray, USMC (Ret), 29th Commandant - At-Large Member

LtGen Gary S. McKissock, USMC (Ret) - At-Large Member

Mr. Terry Branton

Mr. Tom DeSanctis

MyGySgt Osceola Elliss, USMC (Ret)

Col Chuck Geiger, USMC (Ret)

Col Bruce Gombar, USMC (Ret)

LtCol Lynn "Kim" Kimball, USMC (Ret)

CWO4 Richard McIntosh, USMC (Ret)

CWO5 Lisa Potts, USMC (Ret)

Col Grant Sparks, USMC (Ret)

GySgt Forest Spencer, USMC (Ret)

Ashley Danielson, Executive Director

SgtMaj Joe Houle, Operations Director

Richard Koeckert, Accounting Manager