For most of its history the United States Navy had no flag of its own. Founded in 1775, the service went nearly two centuries without an official banner — so the flag this bluejacket carries filled the gap. Known as the Infantry Battalion flag, after the naval landing battalions that first bore it, its blue field and white diamond charged with a fouled anchor became the Navy's unofficial standard, carried in drills, parades and ceremonies for more than sixty years. It was the flag that represented the Navy through both world wars. Only in 1959 did President Eisenhower authorize a proper official Navy flag to replace it — which makes this handsome fouled-anchor standard the one Americans of the WWII generation knew as the Navy's own.

The figure is a Navy bluejacket in dark service blues and the white "Dixie cup" cap, marching with the standard held high, its pole topped by a gilt eagle — the fouled anchor (an anchor tangled in its own chain, the old mark of the sea service) bold on the white diamond. He is made to pair with the U.S. Navy Stars & Stripes bearer as a two-flag color party, backed by sailors like the one in dress blues and reviewed by Admiral Chester Nimitz. A color guard on parade, or the colors raised over a captured island, gives a naval diorama its ceremony and its spine.

Model: USN033 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set