The SandGram

If you are looking for something to give your Dad or buddy who served in ANY branch of the service, check this site out, http://www.myservicepride.com/store/

Every now and than, I come across some really sharp guys out there who are hard working and trying to make a go at something.   Well, I just talked that guy! His name is Matt Massie and he is the owner of My Service Pride and he spent ten years in the Corps as a reservist with three tours in Iraq. His Dad Bob was asking questions about his “Rack” and Matt was trying to explain what each one represented. Bob told his son that he should figure out a way to market this little niche on the awards and he came up with “My Service Pride” where you can upload your awards (really easy site to work) with devices/badges etc from any service and have them put on coffee mugs, license plates, stickers for the back of your car the whole nine yards. I have to warn any posers out there that Matt is a Ribbon chaser and he might question your rack if you are putting a “V” on your Silver Star type thing…

 I told Bob that I don’t normally put adverts on the sandgram but would be happy to help out a young Marine for the low low cost of nothing. They have some great ideas that aren’t being utilized that I know of. One of the things they are trying to do that might interest some of you with Grandparents/relatives who served in the Military is making a booklet that breaks down each award, what they are, all combat badges, ribbons etc and the ability to upload the actual Certs into the presentation that can then be put into a nice hardbound booklet.

I mention this because my wife’s grandfather served under Patton during the battle of the Bulge driving an ambulance jeep back and forth moving the wounded to the rear. He has a great shadow box, but not a clue as to what all the awards/medals are since he’s passed. I can look them up but this service would make a nice neat package for them. They can take pictures of the shadow box and do up the history. Something like this would be awesome for the families who are interested in what their family did during the different wars.

Anyway, if you all are looking for an awesome Christmas gift for one of your military buddies, I ask that you give Matt and his site a shot.

Semper Fi,

Taco

PS, also, here are Matt’s vision/mission statement for his company that I really like.

Our Passion: connecting with the community of people who share the ethos of service.

Our Mission: to honor personal military service with respectful out-of-uniform displays of that service.

Our Commitment: to be best in the world at products that honor personal service to country, and the actions and traditions behind that service.

Our Undying Gratitude: to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, both living and dead, who have given of themselves in service to their country – especially to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Our Pledge – $.50 of the proceeds from your order is matched by an outside donor and contributed to veteran related charities. (We are making this year’s contribution to Wounded Warriors.  And per your very pointed blog on the subject, we hope that we are doing this for the “Right Reason.”)

In the spirit of honoring personal service to country, we are building a database of awards and descriptions thereof that we can give to people who register with MyServicePride.  We call it “My Service Story” and it’s a simple documentation of the meaning of the military awards received.  We don’t know of anything like this that’s available now and are very excited about how it tells part of the story of a person’s service.  As a Marine dad, the one we did for Matt helped me understand and appreciate his awards far better than what I could pry out of him.  I’m attaching a copy of the one we did for Matt, and one we did for a now-deceased vet who served from WWII to Vietnam.