 In downtown San Francisco, there's a hotel dedicated to all who serve or have served. With reasonable rates, well-appointed rooms, and a top floor steakhouse, many military families find it a nice place for a little R&R. But the Marines Memorial Association's Marines Memorial Club is more than just a hotel. It's meant to be a living memorial. It started as General Alexander van der Griff's idea. During World War II, he led the 1st Marine Division to victory at the six-month-long Battle of Guadalcanal. Although it was one of the bloodiest battles of the war in the Pacific, he was worried people would forget the sacrifices made by his Marines. And his words were, no statue will pay proper tribute to our Marines and sacrifices in World War II. And we need something that's a living memorial. Those who work at the hotel have taken the words of General van der Griff and the Marines Memorial Association mission of education to heart. John Lockey and his team of volunteers are in charge of all of the historical displays throughout the building. It's the idea that when you come here, you're not in a sterile hotel. You're in something that has a sense of history about it. It has something that is maybe unusual that you've never seen before, or that you can look at it very close up and say, oh, golly, I didn't realize this was the actual situation. Tucked away in the bowels of the hotel is where Lockey's team prepares all of the artifacts for display. Just about everything they have has been donated. It's like a Christmas thing. You come in on a week. We go for a week and we come back for a week and we walk in and, oh, what is this? You open up the box and there's something that somebody has given us that is a part of history. Each floor has something different, whether it's the displays of uniforms or a library full of books about the military. There's also tributes to commandants and sergeants major of the Marine Corps, those who have received the Medal of Honor and other notable Marines. Probably the most solemn place in the entire building is a display of the names of each of the more than 5,600 service members who've given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. When people are up here and they're looking at a plaque of their son or something, you got to leave. It just gets so emotional. In the middle of the room is a place for visitors young and old to express their emotions through words. In addition to the displays, the hotel itself is a piece of history. What started out as an exclusive women's club in the 1920s became a barracks for the Navy's waves, women accepted for volunteer emergency service. General Vandergrift eventually bought it using leftover PX funds at the end of World War II. To this day, the Marines Memorial Association ensures the hotel's mission continues to be what General Vandergrift intended. A place to commemorate the service of veterans, educate the public about those sacrifices and to provide services to those who currently serve. In San Francisco, I'm Staff Sergeant Brian Wuckl.