The Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial hosted its annual Veterans Day Ceremony at on Tuesday, November 11, honoring all who served, with a special tribute to the United States Marine Corps on their 250th Birthday.

This year’s ceremony featured Medal of Honor recipient Colonel Harvey C. Barnum, Jr., USMC (Ret.) and Brigadier General Dustin “Warren” Byrum, USMC, Deputy Assistant Commandant for Aviation. Congressman Donald Norcross (NJ-1), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and longtime advocate for veterans and the Battleship, also delivered remarks.

Following the ceremony, guests were invited to a ceremonial cake cutting under the fantail tent celebrating both Veterans Day and the Marine Corps’ 250th Birthday, and a ribbon cutting for the newly restored Marine Detachment (MARDET) berthing space—now open to the public for the first time as part of the Battleship’s tour route.

“Marines have been an integral part of the New Jersey’s story from her first commissioning in 1943,” said Marshall Spevak, CEO of the Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial. “We’re honored to welcome Colonel Barnum, Brigadier General Byrum, Congressman Norcross, veterans, and hundreds of Marines aboard the nation’s most decorated Battleship to celebrate their unparallel legacy of warfighting and sea service.”

Thousands of Marines served aboard USS New Jersey (BB-62) across three of the ship’s four commissionings—in World War II, Korea, and the 1980s—as part of the ship’s Marine Detachment responsible for shipboard security and gunnery operations. Likewise, the Battleship New Jersey has a long history of providing naval gunfire support for Marines in active combat zones in the Pacific in World War II, Vietnam, and Beirut.