One of my first pieces of military items I collected with my mom's help was this pennant.  She picked up this pennant and a WWI or Mexican Border uniform of a private from the Company A, 158th Infantry at the Riordan Mansion in Flagstaff, AZ.  They were having an auction or estate sale of Riordan items at the time.  The Riordans are a pioneer family of Flagstaff and very well known and respected.  Their mansion is open for tours and I was able to take my wife there one time when we visited Flagstaff.  Ever since then I've tried to look out for items of the First Arizona Infantry but they sure don't come up that often.  Anyway, I thought I'd share these with you all.  -- Matt     This is a fairly brittle and old document I obtained off eBay a long time ago.  Note that the document was signed by Colonel Alexander M. Tuthill, Commanding the Regiment as well as then Captain George E Haedicke.     This is basically a document noting the promotion to Corporal of Richard L Byrd of Company M of the regiment.   Here's information on Richard L Byrd.  As you'll see he advanced to 1st Lt in the United States Marines in WWI.       Note that in this WWI Draft Registration Card that Richard Leslie Byrd shows he's in the Arizona National Guard.   Quite the accomplished soldier and athlete Richard L Byrd was, and he started his military career with the First Arizona Infantry (National Guard).                    

A friend of mine sent me this article on two local men that are related to him. Very sad they both died in the pacific a year apart. Read the article,  it's very amazing the coincidences.  

Compliments ocsfollowme National Training Center-OPFOR  BMP qualification badges. I forgot the criteria for earning one. Nor the upgrade in color border. Worn only by NTC OPFOR, above left breast pocket nametape on OPFOR field uniform. A certificate was issued with this when awarded. 

Nice rifle. 03's rule.

I have never seen such provenance!  Its awesome!

Memorial Day 2026

385th MP Bn.  At least that is what ASMIC has it being.      -Ski

My Brother-in-Law,  is a retired CTRCM. Would love to see the insignia on this jumper. 

There's no doubt the name on the stock is Kiplinger.  During the interwar period and WWII, thousands of M1903 rifles were assigned to State Guard units, military academies, or university ROTC programs. These institutions frequently used larger, non-standard alphanumeric stamping patterns to track their hardware. The stock markings, "L 3002" and "G 3083" are not factory manufacturing marks or standard arsenal rebuild codes.  Instead I'm just guessing it might be a letter that desginates a specific company, troop, or department (e.g., Company L and Company G), while the four-digit number matches the rifle to a specific soldier, rack position, or inventory ledger. It's possible the reason for these two unit markings (if that's what they are) might be that the "L" stamp was likely applied first by one unit. When the rifle was reassigned to a different unit (Company G), the armorers stamped the new designation nearby rather than sanding down the original wood. Obviously, all this is conjecture on my part and it's just a WAG, but it's my guess.  Personally, I don't think we'll ever know which Kiplinger this rifle belonged.  Carry on...