Have you ever had one of those projects dancing around in your head for years, but you just never seemed to get it done? For once, I have beaten the procrastination demon and accomplished something that I have wanted to do for years, and that is to display my Army medals, patches, pins, and ribbons in a shadow box. I am very proud of the more than a decade that I spent in our Armed Services, and it always pained me to think of all of this stuff collecting dust in a footlocker up in the loft of our garage. I finally decided to do something about it, and this is the end result. I don't have the strength tonight to try to decipher all the different items. If you have any military experience, I'm sure you will recognize plenty. In fact, for you current or ex-military types out there, I can turn this into a sort of game: based on what you see, what did Chanman do with his time in the service and where did he serve? Remember, if you click on the photo, you can really zoom in!
The one edit I had to make for this photo was to paint over my last name on the tag in the extreme upper left. I prefer to just be Chanman on this blog; don't want my students Googling me and finding my mental meanderings online.
I will be donating this display to my church for the month of November, as they are putting together a Veterans Day display in our gathering hall, and have been asking for military memorabilia from our members who have served.
Good Day to You, Sir, and Hooah!
7 comments:
I cheated, I Googled. So here is what I found, let me know if I’m correct.
Starting top to bottom, L-R:
Row 1: ? (Division number?), E-5 Sergeant stripes (which I knew), ?, ?, ?, E-5 SS, CA Nat’l Guard
Row 2: ?,?, ?,?, US Army Service stripes, ?,?, CA Nat’l Guard Retired, ?,?, Expert Weapons Qualifications medal, 1st Corps patch, Bluebird Beret Flash patch
Row 3: ?,?,?, (group of ribbons, top to bottom) Commendation medal, Achievement medal, Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, NATO medal, ? the rest, Joint Merit Unit Award, ?,?
Row 4: Army Commendation medals (x3), Army Achievement medals (x2), Army Good Conduct medal, Nat’l Defense Service medal, United Nations medal, United Nations Protection Force in Yugoslavia, ? (x2)
And the medals lying down, I can’t see well enough. So maybe I didn’t find that much after all. Regardless, congratulations on your military career. What a wonderful way to show off your memories. I know your children will be proud to have this passed down to future generations.
Thank you for your service and God bless you and all of our military personnel, past, present and future.
I wonder what your students would think if they saw your shadowbox? They might be impressed, and it could generate some interesting discussion. Bring photos as well.
I honestly don't know what the reaction would be. I know that in the past when I have used my time in the military as an example to illustrate a point I am making, I always detect sighing and rolling of the eyes, like they are thinking, "Oh boy, there he goes with that military stuff again." On the other hand, I do get questions about where I have been stationed, and of course, have I ever shot anyone.
Bring the box to school and have them write about how they felt when they saw all the medals etc., then let them look them up for extra credit.
Thank you for your service. I was "4F".
Pretty good t... not bad for a civilian!
The medals lying down are actually unit coins. These are coins that are specially minted for all the different units out there. They are used as on-the-spot "atta boy" awards, and are given out by unit commanders and very senior NCOs.
I don't have enough chesticles from my short service to make a shadow box. I just have an "I Love Me" wall in my library that has a few plaques, pictures, assorted goodies.
The shadow box is *sharp*. Muy bueno!
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