MDZ Atlantic

 
Marcus K
 
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Marcus K
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31 May 2007 13:27
 

This is the CoA of the Maritime Defense Zone Atlantic. This is a U.S. Coast Guard unit.

http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/8285/mdzxw7.jpg

 
Andrew J Vidal
 
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Andrew J Vidal
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31 May 2007 13:37
 

i really like that design!  I’m not usually one for flauches, but that plays into it well I think.

 
Marcus K
 
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Marcus K
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31 May 2007 13:57
 

Andrew J Vidal;45650 wrote:

i really like that design!  I’m not usually one for flauches, but that plays into it well I think.


Yes I think they are ment to represent the Eastern and Western Shores with the Atlantic between them.

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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31 May 2007 14:12
 

Marcus K;45646 wrote:

This is the CoA of the Maritime Defense Zone Atlantic. This is a U.S. Coast Guard unit.


Well, sort of.  As the Coast Guard Marine Safety Manual rather obscurely puts it, "The MDZ’s are Navy commands, even though the MDZ Commanders are Coast Guard officers."

 

To clarify, if I can:  MDZs are joint Coast Guard-Navy skeleton staffs that would be fleshed out in time of war or contingency as the command structure for both Coast Guard and Navy coastal warfare units serving under the two U.S. Navy major fleet commanders.  In wartime, the three-star USCG admirals commanding the Coast Guard Atlantic and Pacific Areas would mutate into the commanders of the two MDZs working for the four-star commanders of the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets.

 

By the way, the photo provided by Marcus may be a bit misleading; at least it is on my monitor.  The shield is not really dark and light green (a heraldic faux pas) but dark blue and medium green.

 

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/images/mdzlant.gif

 

I would guess that the green flanks are an allusion to the Navy slang term for coastal waters—"green water"—and the two chain links to the bonding of Coast Guard and Navy forces under the MDZ.

 

MDZ Pacific unfortunately has an unheraldic emblem.  Even more unfortunately, it’s boring.

 

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/images/mdzpac.gif

 
Marcus K
 
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Marcus K
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31 May 2007 15:29
 

Thanks Joseph! And yes perhaps the blue on my scanning shows up a bit green on the screen, but blue it is.

 
Jonathan R. Baker
 
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Jonathan R. Baker
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31 May 2007 15:59
 

I think that this is my favorite military insignia that I’ve ever seen.  It’s simple, attractive and captures the role of the unit well.  Also the ‘supporters’ are nicely rendered and not overdone.

 
Donnchadh
 
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Donnchadh
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31 May 2007 16:19
 

i really like this design too.

 
David Pritchard
 
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31 May 2007 22:05
 

Jonathan R. Baker;45666 wrote:

Also the ‘supporters’ are nicely rendered and not overdone.


I agree that the overall achievement is attractive but does it pass the scrutiny of a military/naval historian? The objects that caught my eye are part of the addiments, the ‘supporters’ that Jonathan mentioned. The two crossed swords bear a striking resemblance to the 1832 Model Foot Artillery Sword. While the swords were issued to the Coastal Artillery in the period, 1832-1874, the Coastal Artillery has been under the control of the US Army since 1794. There are however some pre-Civil War US Naval small arms inventories of historical ships that list odd swords as ‘boarding swords’ and ‘Roman’, these could in fact be the Model 1832 Artillery Sword. The only indisputable record of the 1832 Model sword being issued to the US Navy are the twenty swords supplied from the Watervliet Arsenal to Commodore Perry’s flagship the USS Mississippi for the 1852 voyage to Japan. The 1832 Model Sword was never popular and very awkward due to its great weight and in fact it found its most usefulness in the backwoods of Florida during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842) when it was used effectively as a machete. The question that I would have for the heraldic designer is how does this very rarely used sword fit into the history of the Command or that of the commands that it succeded?

 

 


<div class=“bbcode_center” >
The 1832 Model Artillery Sword


<div class=“bbcode_center” >
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/6239/ssnoscaboa4bb6.jpg
</div>

 


http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/9352/link188al3.jpg
</div>


An image of an Artillery Sergeant, wearing the Model 1832 Sword, from a two volume set of hand tinted photographs, bound in 1866 for the Quartermaster General of the United States Army, in the collection of the Army Quartermaster Museum - Fort Lee, Virginia[/CENTER]

 
Jonathan R. Baker
 
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Jonathan R. Baker
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31 May 2007 22:13
 

I actually almost commented on the swords’ similarity to the Roman Gladius, which, as far as I know, saw extensive use on Roman ships for the purpose of boarding actions.  I don’t know how this fits into the history of the unit, but I would think that a short, compact, sturdy sword would be much more pragmatic ship-side than a longer sword.

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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01 June 2007 06:49
 

Well, the command has no history to speak of.  This is a relatively new concept, as far as I know.  The last time the entire Coast Guard came under naval command was World War II, long before such formal joint commands came into vogue.

I imagine the swords are just heraldic swords, just as the anchor is just a heraldic anchor.  Which some (von Volborth, for instance) would argue is a better design practice than using historically accurate depictions of post-medieval weaponry.  I personally have no strong feelings either way.

 
Iain Boyd
 
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Iain Boyd
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01 June 2007 19:30
 

Dear Marcus,

The picture you included in your original posting appears to have been taken from a book.

 

Do you know what the name of the book is, its author and its publisher?

 

Regards,

 

Iain Boyd

 
Marcus K
 
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Marcus K
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02 June 2007 18:33
 

Iain Boyd;45732 wrote:

Dear Marcus,

The picture you included in your original posting appears to have been taken from a book.

 

Do you know what the name of the book is, its author and its publisher?

 

Regards,

 

Iain Boyd


Yes it is from a Book "Select Colour Handbooks : Military Insignia" by Derek Avery ISBN 1-85326-820-8 Published in 1995 by Wordsworth Editions Ltd, Cumberland House Crib St., Ware Hertfordshire SG12 9ET United Kingdom.