It is time to write about this. Of course I think it should not because it has obviously affected my business. Ours is just another one of many small veteran owned businesses that are affected by the sequestration. We are doing just fine, thanks for asking. We diversified early-on but others are not so fortunate.
SO AGAIN, WHAT ARE CHALLENGE COINS TO A SERVICE PERSON?
Well as my wife says, they are a road map to a career well served.
Forty years ago there were generally two ways to award soldiers, sailors or marines. Either you gave them a nice letter of appreciation or commendation and a three day pass or you put them in for an official award. These letters were nice. I have a storage room full of them. You get the letter, put it in a folder and away it goes. These were personal but did little to promote esprit de corps. Nobody ever displayed their letters of appreciation for all to see.
PLAQUES AND “I LOVE ME WALLS”
This was the next step. At the end (and pay special attention to the term END) of one’s tour one might get a nice plaque as a going away gift. Then at your next unit hang it on the wall of one’s office. The only problem with that is that must soldiers and sailors do not have an office. So they go into storage until someone is promoted into an office. Then out they come. 15 years of plaques that don’t mean much to the other folks who see them. Sometimes they were event specific. Soldier of the quarter for example. These are different. They are appreciated. Again. Too bad most service members have no place to hang them.
But take a note. Have you priced plaques lately? They can run north of a hundred. Many people have told me that since challenge coins were discouraged they have gone to buying plaques and other awards again and actually spending way more money than they did on custom coins.
SO CONGRESS… HOW TO SAVE MONEY?
Why not start saving by making certain that some commander does not give a $4.00 challenge coin to a deserving service person? I mean they sign up for a set number of years. It’s not like they will quit and move on. They can’t. Not right away. Doing away with Challenge coins, most of which are sold by small, mostly veteran owned businesses, is no doubt what the congress wants. After all. It is far easier to balance the budget on the backs of our people in uniform and small the small, veteran owned businesses that support them, than it is to risk annoying a big defense contractor.
I am not slamming all congressmen and congresswomen. Clearly there are a great many who want this nonsense to end. If you are working to end the sequester, thank you. Challenge coins or not it is really hurting the country and particularly the women and men who serve selflessly in our armed forces.
D & R DOES WHAT IT CAN TO HELP
If you are a service person trying to get a military coin for your troops please give us a call. We have special options available to make it easy and affordable for you. Give us a chance to help you reward your superb soldiers, sailors and marines.