The Wisconsin Naval Militia is the currently inactive

naval militia A naval militia is a reserve military organization administered under the authority of a state government in the United States. It is often composed of reservists of the Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, and Coast Guard Reserve, retirees ...

of the state of

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. The Wisconsin Naval Militia served as a military reserve force for the state of Wisconsin, and was organized as a naval parallel to the

Wisconsin National Guard The Wisconsin National Guard consists of the Wisconsin Army National Guard and the Wisconsin Air National Guard. It is a part of the Government of Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is t ...

History

The Wisconsin Naval Militia was first created on 28 April 1909 when the

Wisconsin Legislature The Wisconsin Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The Legislature is a bicameral body composed of the upper house, Wisconsin State Senate, and the lower Wisconsin State Assembly, both of which have had Republica ...

authorized a naval militia consisting of one

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...

of four

companies A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...

. The naval militia maintained units at Ashland and Bayfield until

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. By 1914, the naval militia had reached a strength of 160 men organized into three companies. In 1916, the naval militia was temporarily disbanded due to the inability of the state to procure a ship to be used for training purposes; however, new units were immediately reorganized in different parts of the state, funded with money raised by private donors. The naval militia was reorganized in 1927 with units in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

and

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

. The Wisconsin Naval Militia was officially disbanded in 1955.

Legal status

The right of states to organize and maintain naval militias is recognized by the federal government of the United States under 10 U.S. Code §7851. Any naval militia may receive access to vessels, material, armament, equipment, and other facilities of the Navy and the Marine Corps which are available to the Navy Reserve and the Marine Corps Reserve if 95% or more of the naval militia's manpower is recruited from the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...

or the

United States Marine Corps Reserve The Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES or MFR), also known as the United States Marine Corps Reserve (USMCR) and the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve, is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. It is the largest command, by assigned p ...

Reactivation effort

In the spring of 2001, the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs announced the findings of a year-long study which found that reactivating the Wisconsin Naval Militia would likely prove to be a cost-effective enhancement to Wisconsin's emergency medical response capability. A bill which would have reactivated the naval militia passed the assembly of the Wisconsin Legislature by a wide margin but failed in the senate. Subsequent bills intended to reactivate the naval militia have also failed.

References

{{State Defense Forces Military in Wisconsin State defense forces of the United States

History

Legal status

Reactivation effort

See also

References