48 Star U.S. Flag, WWII, Lt. John McGeorge Dalnez.
This 48 star, wool, United States flag was formerly part of the collection of Wall Street financier, businessman and promoter of Anglo-American goodwill Calvin Bullock. His Wall Street offices in New York City contained world-leading collections of memorabilia pertaining to Napoleon & Lord Nelson. In the 1930s he sought to collect Confederate Flags and during World War II he acquired a collection of US, British, French and other allied ensigns from his many international and military and naval acquaintances. After his death in 1944 his son, Hugh Bullock kept the flags on display as a memorial to his late father.
This flag was a private purchase as 'Sterling' was the brand name for Annin & Co's all wool commercial grade flags. It was gifted to Calvin Bullock by John McGeorge Dalenz, an employee of Bullock who eventually rose to become vice president of Calvin Bullock Ltd. The inscription on the Bullock Master List reads; 'An American Flag that I was able to use for my own Unit on an historic occasion, From Lt. John McG. Dalenz to Mr. C.B. - April 1944. The inscription refers to the use of this flag on "secret" missions of the Navy during WWII. Bullock received this flag a matter of weeks after the flag's last service on one of those "missions".
The "secret " unit Dalnez commanded was the U.S. Navy's Argus 21 unit during the invasion of Kwajalein in 1944. The Argus program trained & deployed elite amphibious combat teams, landed them in hostile territory to rapidly deploy radar and radio communications equipment, paving the way for effective land based fighter aircraft direction. This coordinated fighter direction allowed for interception and prevention of enemy air and surface attacks on allied Pacific bases. The name Argus, referring to a mythological Greek being with 100 eyes, was chosen to symbolize the 'all-seeing' radar of the Argus Units.
Dalenz is also mentioned in former Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal's papers, in Correspondence - 1941, Box 54 - 55. John McGeorge Dalenz graduated from Princeton in 1928.
Publications:
Bullock, Hugh, Sixty Years, Calvin Bullock, New York, 1954.P.32.
Provenance:
• Made by Annin & Company, New York, NY., 1940s.
• Lt. John McGeorge Dalenz, USN, April, 1944.
• Gifted to Calvin Bullock, New York, NY, until passing, June, 1944.
• By bequest to Hugh Bullock, until passing. 1966.
• By descent in Bullock family to daughter of Hugh Bullock, until 1997
• Acquired by the Zaricor Flag Collection via private treaty from estate Calvin Bullock of New York City, 1997
ZFC Significant Flag
Item is Framed
Sources:
Bullock, Hugh, Sixty Years, Calvin Bullock, New York, 1954.P.32.
Madaus, Howard M.- Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict, VZ Publications, Santa Cruz, 2006.
48 Star Flag - (1912-1959) (U.S.), Flags of the World, 12 November 2011, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-1912.html
James V. Forrestal Papers, 1907-1958, Princeton University Library, Mudd Manuscript Library, 12 November 2011, from:
http://findingaids.princeton.edu/getEad?eadid=MC051&kw=
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
