The Airman's Coin. To my knowledge the AF is the only branch that even hands out a token right of passage keepsake.
My first question is for the seasoned active duty service member that reads this.
Does it hold a place to remind you of your accomplishment after the years go by? Or is it a equivalent to your HS tassle that may or may not have hung from your mirror?
The reason I ask, is that if it holds a place of importance to you after all these years then I have a story........ ( Relax,......It's only a short story)
The last day I spent w/ my son at Lackland, we're walking along talking about what he has in front of him. I tell him how proud I am of him, and in between fighting back tears ( and failing miserably) remind him that I am not the type to wear some T shirt that proclaims how proud I am of my AF son. I want him to know that there is nothing I could buy that could even measure up to how proud I was of him right then. I want him to know that.
The days goes by and before long we're faced w/ the inevitability that we're going to have to say good bye for what will be a long time to me w/ several thousand miles in between as a kicker. The wife, his girl friend, and his aunt are no good,...the faucet has been flowing for the last hour. I do my best to put on my brave face and say good bye, shake his hand and give him a hug and get in the car.
He spends a few minutes w/ the others and comes around to my window and motions to me to roll down the window. He hands me the coin and says...." to get this, I only had to go through 8 and a half weeks of basic training, You and mom had to raise me for 19 years to get me here, so if anybody deserves this it's you. This is the only thing you can't buy on the base to show your pride in me".
I lost it. I had to bury my "brave face" in his shoulder, give him a last hug all while his dad was almost sobbing.
So, it's been weeks since the day now. I decided on the plane ride back that I would somehow buy or build a display case to allow me the ability to display that coin and place it in my car so that I can have a part of him riding in there with me.
This concludes the "story" part of the thread. ( See,.....only a couple of paragraphs)
I have been working on this today, but I'm conflicted. I built this thing out of wood today, and it's far from done. Those that know what I can do, should figure that when it's finished it'll be respectable. Originally, I was just going to recess the thing in a 1/4" piece of wood 1/4-1/2" larger in diameter than the coin itself and finish the thing in some sort of high gloss black.
But I got a wild hair and spent a couple of hours cutting and sanding on this:
If I use it, it will be painted in the same colors as the emblem is typically displayed; Blue and gold, or blue and silver, with the silver laid in the recesses.
Right now it's 1/2 thick, but when I'm finished, it'll be less than half that.
The dilemma is that the thing is pretty big, and although it'll fit on the dash above the center A/C vents, I kinda think it looks like a symbol from the Klingon empire.
Whether or not the coin means anything to anyone other than me, It has HUGE meaning for me, and it is gonna ride w/ me in that car. At the same time, I don't want to hokey it up or do something that comes off as cheesy.
So,...Question #2:
This thing is 3.75" high, and will be almost midnight blue, mounted on a black dash. What do you guys think?
My first question is for the seasoned active duty service member that reads this.
Does it hold a place to remind you of your accomplishment after the years go by? Or is it a equivalent to your HS tassle that may or may not have hung from your mirror?
The reason I ask, is that if it holds a place of importance to you after all these years then I have a story........ ( Relax,......It's only a short story)
The last day I spent w/ my son at Lackland, we're walking along talking about what he has in front of him. I tell him how proud I am of him, and in between fighting back tears ( and failing miserably) remind him that I am not the type to wear some T shirt that proclaims how proud I am of my AF son. I want him to know that there is nothing I could buy that could even measure up to how proud I was of him right then. I want him to know that.
The days goes by and before long we're faced w/ the inevitability that we're going to have to say good bye for what will be a long time to me w/ several thousand miles in between as a kicker. The wife, his girl friend, and his aunt are no good,...the faucet has been flowing for the last hour. I do my best to put on my brave face and say good bye, shake his hand and give him a hug and get in the car.
He spends a few minutes w/ the others and comes around to my window and motions to me to roll down the window. He hands me the coin and says...." to get this, I only had to go through 8 and a half weeks of basic training, You and mom had to raise me for 19 years to get me here, so if anybody deserves this it's you. This is the only thing you can't buy on the base to show your pride in me".
I lost it. I had to bury my "brave face" in his shoulder, give him a last hug all while his dad was almost sobbing.
So, it's been weeks since the day now. I decided on the plane ride back that I would somehow buy or build a display case to allow me the ability to display that coin and place it in my car so that I can have a part of him riding in there with me.
This concludes the "story" part of the thread. ( See,.....only a couple of paragraphs)
I have been working on this today, but I'm conflicted. I built this thing out of wood today, and it's far from done. Those that know what I can do, should figure that when it's finished it'll be respectable. Originally, I was just going to recess the thing in a 1/4" piece of wood 1/4-1/2" larger in diameter than the coin itself and finish the thing in some sort of high gloss black.
But I got a wild hair and spent a couple of hours cutting and sanding on this:
If I use it, it will be painted in the same colors as the emblem is typically displayed; Blue and gold, or blue and silver, with the silver laid in the recesses.
Right now it's 1/2 thick, but when I'm finished, it'll be less than half that.
The dilemma is that the thing is pretty big, and although it'll fit on the dash above the center A/C vents, I kinda think it looks like a symbol from the Klingon empire.
Whether or not the coin means anything to anyone other than me, It has HUGE meaning for me, and it is gonna ride w/ me in that car. At the same time, I don't want to hokey it up or do something that comes off as cheesy.
So,...Question #2:
This thing is 3.75" high, and will be almost midnight blue, mounted on a black dash. What do you guys think?