Last modified: 2015-08-28 by rick wyatt
Keywords: california | california navy |
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The California Navy flag seems to be almost identical with the old US Naval Militia flag, which was used during the early part of the 20th Century. The Naval Militias were supposed to be the equivalent of the land Militias, which were the precursors of the National Guard in the United States. However, not every state, in fact not even every state with a seaboard, actually went to the trouble of establishing a Naval Militia. The organization and its flag fell into disuse after WWI, when the US Naval Reserve (originally the US Naval Reserve Force or USNRF, which had been established during the war) was regularized and made part of the US naval establishment. If California seems to have resurrected this organization, at least someone with a bit of knowledge of Vex history saw to it that they adopted a historically accurate flag.
Ron Lahav, 30 November 2005
![[California State Military Reserve flag]](../images/u/us^casm1.gif)
image by Tom Gregg, 6 February 2002
The Organizational Flag of Headquarters, California State Military Reserve, i.e. the non-federal state militia of California. My drawing is based on a photo of the flag on the California Military Museum's web site, which is
worth a visit: www.militarymuseum.org.
The device on the flag is a representation of the shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI) for HQ CSMR--which is the same as that of the California State Area Command (federally recognized National Guard) with the letters S.M.R. added below the crest. The pattern is that specified in Army regulations for troop commands of the Army National Guard: dark blue (not national flag blue) field, yellow fringe, SSI centered in proper colors. Dimensions are not given but they appear to be 3 feet at the hoist by 4 feet on the fly plus 2 1/2-inch fringe, as specified for most organizational flags of the US Army. The Organizational Flag, Headquarters, California State Area Command would be more or less identical except for the absence of the letters on the SSI.
Tom Gregg, 6 February 2002