Johnsons at the San Diego Marine Corp Museum

[Gonzo 0]

Finally got around to stopping by the Marine Corp Museum here in San Diego. Located specifically inside MCRD(Marine Corp Recruit Depot) base. For obvious reasons I wanted to see if they had any Johnsons, but even if they did not have any, I figured the experience would be worth while. And to my surprise there were a TON of vintage and rare weaponry there on display. I've been to many gunshows, and I never seen this many rare firearms in one place grouped together. What a great experience. Well anyways, they had one JSAR on display. It was angled in a way that I could not get a picture of the serial number. There is a weapon room that is off limits, all they give you is a large window of the two rooms, and one of the rooms was hard to see from the window...and the big teaser, I only saw part of the Johnson LMG(which was in that hard to see room). All you can see is front of the LMG sticking out. I definitely wanted to know if these two Johnsons were part of the original orders by the Marine Corp. I know many of us have seen the images of the Para-Marines training with the LMG at Camp Elliot during WWII. Camp Elliot is also in San Diego and is still semi-active. I went to their office and only one lady was working. She was only one of the caretakers of the place. I asked her if there were a chance for me to gain access in the weapon room, she mentioned I would have to come in on a weekday when more staff is working and when the weapons personnel guy was working. She was very helpful and even asked me to call or email her. Well see what happens.

I just have to say, this museum is great, one of the better museums I have been to, and here in San Diego we have a ton...but this museum is just dead with visitors. I went earlier today(Saturday early afternoon) and this museum seems to have no visitors at all. There were only two other families there(and they were families of active Marines). Total of 7 people in there. If this was a Saturday afternoon, I wonder what the weekdays look like. I am guessing because it is located on a military base, many folks think this place is just off limits. Not many people know they can get past the gate if they tell them you wanted to visit the museum(there are no restrictions to the public). And this museum is free. They have an older image of one of their displays, and it looks like at one point they had the Johnson LMG outside of the weapon room and displayed in one of their glass cases(I have attached a pic of the old display as well). I'll try and talk them back in to re-displaying it out in the open.

[Ed Johnson 0]

If you are able to return to the museum or can connect with their curator by telephone, ask him/her if they can give you the serial numbers on the JSAR and JLMG because our website is doing research on the locations of the Johnson products. If you have any luck, let us know.

[ryche_me 0]

I didn't know this museum existed. You can bet i will be there on my next visit to San Diego. Thanks for the heads up!!!

Ryche