What's in your military treasure box?

My thanks to all who shared true treasures here. After retiring, like many of you I had boxes with names tags, patches, badges and rank insignias doing nothing but wasting space so I made this box to define my career.

The most valued and precious are memories.

I have boxes full of things and a stack of wall hangings. They are all material and don't mean as much as the people I worked with. At best they help remind me of the memories.

After my better half and daughter as well as twin boys, my treasure box contains all the memorabilia that visually tell the tales of the depth and breadth of my training in dual services and deployed service to Afghanistan and Iraq (twice). Always Out Front - For GOD, COUNTRY, CORPS (US MARINE & US ARMY MI)!!

I still have my 8x19 black and white glossy of Commanding General of the MDW pinning my EIB on me in 77.

Regretfully, I lost my most prized military possession. A Marine Corps issue tie clip. My dad wore it graduation Paris Island. He got special permission for me to wear it Sandiego graduation 40 years later. It was black, not gold like today. Hopefully it's in a box and I'll come across it some day. How many genuine issue items walked across both boot camps during two different wars?

My favorite thing is shrapnel from an Excalibur mission that my company called in while deployed to Iraq. What's special here is that this was the first ever Excalibur mission to be done in Iraq. After the round hit, we went to the impact site and I reached down into the impact hole and grabbed some pieces of shrapnel. The Excalibur round is worth reading about if you have 5 mins over coffee.

http://www.dvidshub.net/image/86733/wolfhounds-prepare-cannon-calibration#.VK1JHmTF8wQ

I have my Grandfather's WW One Victory Medal and Webley revolver, My Father's 1911A1 that he carried in the Airforce and bought through the Civilian Marksmanship Program, My first set of DogTags, the battle map of Mogadishu that I carried as a team leader, a Mason jar full of the sand on the Beech of Mombasa Kenya, a Marine Non-commissioned officers Sword that one of my former Soldiers who was a former marine presented to me when he returned From Officer Candidates School, a star cut from a U.S. Flag that flew over a home until the weather caused it to be too tattered to be presentable, and my Retirement Flag. I also have the assortment of other DooDads, but I would risk life and limb for those items.

My Dad's id tag and his "Ruptured Duck" lapel pin from his time in the Navy during World War II, and the flag from his coffin. There's lot's of stuff that I've acquired during my own service over the years, but those three are the ones that mean the most to me.

Civil War stuff like a Sword, Rifle, Money and a Newspaper from the Vicksburg Gazzette printed on the back of wallpaper and the last thing it says is General Grant has "caught the rabbit"

my military treasure box is knowing that the 4th generation serving in the military