The California State Military Museum

The California State Military Museum is located at 1119 Second Street in the Old Sacramento State Historical Park. It is only a few minutes walk from the State Capital, The California State Railroad Museum and several other fine museums, parks, and tourist attractions. The museum, opened by Governor Pete Wilson in 1991, is the official military museum and historical research center of the State of California. This was reinforced on 11 September 2002 when Governor Gray Davis signed legislation making the museum a permanent museum under the California State Military Department and providing permanent funding for the museum. Finally on 13 July 2004, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation to amend the Government Code to make the museum the state's official military museum.

"I am signing AB 1939 which establishes the California State Military Museum and Resource Center located in Sacramento, California as the official military museum because I believe that it is very important to preserve California's storied military heritage."

- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his message to the State Assembly, 13 July 2004

Today the museum houses over 33,000 artifacts as well a substantial library and archives. In addition to the main facility in Sacramento, the museum also has three satellite museums at Camp Roberts in Monterey County, Camp San Luis Obispo in San Luis Obispo County, and the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base (under development) in Orange County. We also oversee non-public Regimental Rooms at the San Diego Armory and other National Guard facilities across the state.

McClellan Field was 10 miles ortheast of Sacramento. In 1935, at the time is was established, it was known as Pacific Air Depot and was one of only four such air depots in the country. In 1938 the base was renamed Sacramento Air Depot and underwent a major expansion as a repair and overhaul facility for P-38 and P-39 fighter planes. The planes were serviced on an assembly line basis. In 1940 an assembly line was added to overhaul P-40 fighters.

In December 1941, soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, P40s, B-26s and B-17s began arriving at the field to be armed and prepared for immediate shipment overseas. Some B-17s came direct to McClellan from the factories. During this time most of the Army Air Forces planes that went to the Pacific Theater were prepared at McClellan. In March

1942 Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle's B-25s arrived at McClellan for arming in preparation for their famous Tokyo raid. From here the planes went to NAS, Alameda to be loaded aboard the aircraft carrier "Hornet".

During the war numerous planes arrived here from all over the U.S. to be armed and otherwise prepared for shipment overseas to combat areas. After the war McClellan became a storage center of several types of aircraft including B-29 bombers. The base was renamed McClellan Air Force Base in 1948 and it's repair and overhaul mission continued throughout the Cold War.

McClellan was closed in the 1990s after the end of the Cold War.

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