The WWII/Korea LVT Museum
The WWII/Korea LVT Museum is located at Camp Del Mar, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California near the Assault Amphibian School Battalion Training Command. It houses exhibits on landing vehicles tracked (LVT)s from World War II and the Korean War including six vintage models used by the U. S. Marine Corps. The museum highlights the service of the “Alligator” Marines during the amphibious assaults of World War II and the Korean War.
The WWII/Korea LVT Museum, located in the Camp Del Mar Area of Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, CA., is a trip back into time. It was a time when the music of Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey was in the air. A time when young men, barely out of high school, assaulted the beaches of islands most Americans had never heard of. Islands with names like Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, to name a few. The men of the United States Marine Corps attacked these islands by going ashore in vehicles like those displayed in the museum. The vehicles are known as LVTs or Landing Vehicle Tracked. On display is an LVT-1 “Alligator”, the original LVT. There is an LVT-2 “Water Buffalo”, LVT-3C “Bushmaster” and an armored LVT(A)-1. Also on display is an LVT-4, the largest of the WWII LVTs and an LVT(A)-5.
In addition to the vehicles there are many displays including maps, photographs, and personal memorabilia donated by the men who rode these vehicles ashore in WWII and Korea. The museum is dedicated to the legacy, valor, and courage of the first “Alligator” Marines who fought the bloody battles in the Pacific during WWII and in the Korean War less than a decade later. The museum is open 7 days a week from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.