What's in your military treasure box?

Not really a treasure box, per say. I have a lots of momentos, plaques, awards, achievements, photos on my rec room walls. A lot of memories are in my head and I've passed a lot of them on to my kids. They were there for some of them. Memories are for sharing with others.

Simply put no. Uniforms medals and that stuff will be sold off soon. My dress blues I will put in a display case along with an nco sword when I get to that point.

I went from Basic, to AIT, to Airborne school to SFQC, at 19yrs of age. When I arrived and was in Prephase training in Bco Tng Bn some General Officer decided that SF could no longer wear a Green Beret. We could not wear them anyway as we had yet to complete any training. Upon arriving back at Bco Tng Bn just prior to being sent to Aco on Smoke Bomb hill, we were informed that said Gen. was informed that he did not have the authority to counter a Presidential order and the Beret returned, we were issued a green Beret and were told to use the center 1/4 inch of the flash of the unit to which we were to be assigned and if we had no pinpoint assignment to use the flash of the Tng Bn ( all white) directly under the SF crest on our beret called a "Candy Stripe". I still have that beret, and even though I failed 300 F1 at Ft. Sam the time I spent in that training and on the hill are some of my fondest memories. I would risk my life to protect that Beret.

Also have GI Joe action figures including about a dozen representing MOH recipients. I also affixed a few corresponding autographs to the box. Much fun to collect memorabilia of our heroes!

Beside my usual shadow box material and certificates I started collecting Medal of Honor recipients autographs most on postal covers bought from Ebay. Got intetested when the postal service started the MOH stamp series. WW2 Korea and Vietnam soon to come out. Planning to frame some autographs with the stamp sheet display and some in an album! Also have my dads WW2 Navigator wings. Mounted those on a frame with a pix of my dad in uniform .

I served from 2000-2009, and that time included four deployments to various places. I have some of my militaria scattered in different places. My journal from Iraq is in a lock box. My medals, badges, and other awards are in a shadow-box behind my desk in my classroom. My uniforms are in footlockers in the attic, separated into BDU, DCU, and ACU.

I do have an old 1950s footlocker sitting in my garage. It is green and has someone's name and serial number stenciled on the lid. It has shipping labels from Korea, and the leather handles are worn out.

This is my military treasure box. It has knives that I picked up from locals in Afghanistan. It has newspaper clipping from different newsworthy missions and operations that I participated in. There are letters from my wife and cards from friends and family. You can find my first pair of airborne wings, my first CIB, and my first set of crossed rifles. There are some toy soldiers, a red and white checked scarf, and hand drawn pictures from school kids. You will find a pocket watch adorned with an American eagle, that my wife's grandfather gave to me. There is a small wooden cross wrapped in copper wire in there. The cross was given to me by a woman in the airport in Atlanta while I was passing through on R&R. The wire came from an IED trigger point. My dad's olive drab fatigue shirt is in there, and so is my boonie cap in which I wrote every stop I made on every deployment. You will find currency, from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Europe, Iraqi, Djibouti, and Ethiopia, and a cellular phone with Arabic on the keys. There are maps from different deployments and bases in there. There are printed programs from military balls, welcome home ceremonies, and memorial services. There is a uniform photo of my Great-Uncle Mike, who's bomber went down over Corsica in 1944. There is a booklet from JPAC explaining the bits of his remains that were located in 2006, and that I escorted back to our hometown in 2010.

My daughter never knew me as a soldier, and my son only remembers the things he has been told. I remember finding my father's uniforms tucked away in the back of his closet, and I was amazed. Sometimes I hope my own children will find my box someday, and we can sit down and talk about my military service. Until then, I get into my box occasionally, and I remember things. Sometimes looking at something or smelling something can take me back to a time when I was young, strong, brave, and invincible. It is nice to remember.

Funny this should come up at this time....I have in the past few days had my lap top set up were I can record my military history on it and leave it for my nephew along with my class A,my dd214 and all the Award and things.....I have already given him my Shadow Box...He told his Mom he wanted to hang in his room..Thats were it is...My nephew is the Youngest of 14 that I have...The others are all grown up..I was not able due to my service to be around my other ones much when they were growing up...I am single and I have no childrens to leave my things to....

Funny thing, I lost mine in a house fire.

Not really. But I do have my dolphins that are old and crusty (like me).

I have two photos, framed. One is a shot of a SM-1 launch caught by someone with a cheap camera and reminds me that luck does sometime play a roll and that Murphy does have a evil sense of humor. The other is of my last ship and is signed by the entire division.