On this Independence Day, the Marine Corps has opened a new art exhibit at its National Museum, documenting the service's 250th anniversary.

It's called 250 years of dedication, determination, and courage.

It celebrates the Marines' most famous moments, but it also features the other side of war, trauma, terror, and sacrifice.

Nick Schifrin went for a visit. For combat artist and Marine Corps veteran Christopher Battles,

the brush is no less mighty than the sword. War is one of the oldest human endeavors. It

encompasses everything in humanity, the good or the bad and the ugly.

And so we try not to edit out any of that.

So combat art tries to show everything as best we can.

Battles enlisted back in the 80s as a computer operator.

His true love was art, and he rejoined after

9-11 to deploy to Iraq as a combat artist. He's now at the Museum of the Marine Corps

south of Washington, D.C., as its artist in residence.

There's something magical about the medium of the painted picture. There's a very intimate

engagement there that is very personal. You can see the hand of the artist picture. There's a very intimate engagement there that is very personal.

You can see the hand of the artist, you can see how the paint was put down, what was depicted,

how things were arranged, and we're trying to bring maybe something noble and beautiful

out of what is not always a beautiful or noble activity.

One of the strengths of our collection is that we do not shy away from any subject.

Joan Thomas is the curator of the exhibit, more than 90 works of art that document

two and a half centuries of Marine Corps history, from fighting the British in 1781 to fighting

Seminels in the 1840s to the 21st century battles of Afghanistan and Iraq.

I look at art as a way of slowing down the scene. It slows down the moment. It captures the emotion.

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