For Christmas this year I decided to honor Dad's 20 years in the Air Force with a shadow box of the medals that he earned while serving on active duty. My motives were twofold: one, to honor his accomplishments and two, to get the large (but VERY nice) shadowbox that was given to him at his retirement ceremony OUT of the bedroom and above his desk. In the process I learned how very little I knew about military medals and how wonderfully impressive his accomplishments truly are. I spent many hours fussing over how to place things in the shadowbox and made numerous trips to the military clothing sales store (where you go to purchase medals and devices and all things foreign to retired military spouses!) to glean some new info or have old info repeated back to me so I could run home and once again get the medals in their correct order of importance and get the medal devices correct with the right colors. I also went into this thinking that it would take a small amount of time to put it all together and not a significant amount of money to finish it. Neither proved to be true but I REALLY enjoyed this project as it helped me to recall many opportunities, experiences, places, and people that were apart of our military lives. It was a difficult 20 years of sacrifice but it was well worth the rewards and blessings that were piled upon us. I loved learning more about the medals and awards that were presented to him along his military path. I always knew he was an outstanding guy and above average in the things that he did and does today but....Wow! this man ROCKS!! Give him an "atta boy" for all that he accomplished in his 20 years--he certainly deserves at least a billion. Can I hear a "Whoop! Whoop!" Way to go, hon.
