Active Duty/Veteran PIF

Next weekend is Memorial Day and most of you will be cooking hot dogs or spending time at the beach. I personally will be sucking heads and pitching tails...eating crawfish that is.

But While I will be enjoying myself...and I hope you all will too...please take a little time to remember those who have served and for whatever reason...did not return home.

So in honor of our fallen brethren...I want to offer a PIF to those who are still with us and carry on the spirit of those who are not.

This PIF is for all of those here on Badger & Blade who are Active Duty or Veterans. You must have an Active Duty or Veteran Badge. If you do not have a badge and you want one or need one to enter this PIF...look in my signature and click on the link that either says "Active Duty Roll Call" or "Veteran Roll Call." That will lead you to instructions on how to get one.

You must have an address that is in the United States (yes Alaska and Hawaii count also) or an APO/FPO address.

This PIF will close on Monday, May 30th - Memorial Day! I will randomly choose a winner from the entrants...probably in the morning sometime.

Once I pick a winner, I will send a Private Message and the winner has 24 hours to respond with an address for me to send the prize. If the winner doesn't respond in 24 hours, I will pick a new winner they same way and the cycle continues.

To enter you can just say "I'm In," but if you would like to appease the Shaving gods or the grand and wise masters of Badger & Blade (not me of course), then a couple of sentences about a fallen buddy or your time in the service or what Memorial Day means to you....or just something would be great! But not required.

Once the winner receives the prize...it would also be great if that person reviews the product or products that he or she was given.

So what is up for grabs?



An unused tube of St. James of London Black Pepper & Lime Shaving Cream. It is of the 2.5 OZ variety. I will also include a sample of Rapira Super Stainless blades as well as Voskhod blades. I also reserve the right to add something else to the prize package at a later date...but also, I may not...it depends on how I feel.

I just recently bought this when I purchased a tub of St. James Sandalwood and Bergamot cream and After Shave gel. I am not sure how that is going (I am mostly a soap man) so I may be PIFing that in the future. It is very slick and protective and as far as creams go this one is very good. Oh by the way...did I mention that it smells awesome!

So to recap:

Must have Active Duty or Veteran Badge
US/APO/FPO addresses only
Say "I'm In."
Tell something about your time in service, a fallen buddy, or Memorial Day (if you like)

If you win:

Respond to PM in 24 hours
post back here or in another thread a review.

Any questions? Good...

Have a great week and I will see you all next weekend!

Not in. Let us all live productive lives in honor of those who did not get the opportunity because of their sacrifice for all of us.
Sorry I cant figure out how to rotate picture.

Thank you sir. Not in.

I am in.

Not in. Thanks so much for the recognition of the holiday, and your own service.

I'll take the opportunity to remember SSG Ostrom of C. Co (an armor Co.) Attached to 110th In. 2BCT, 28th In. Div. SSG Ostrom was a Bradley dismount filling in for an Abrams Loader on a mission in the summer of 2005 (Habbaniyah, Iraq). He was sniped in the neck while checking the 240G mounted up top. I met him a few days before and never got to know him, but years later I met his mother at an event for returning soldiers. She was part of the Yellow Ribbon Team welcoming everyone home (My 2nd tour had just ended). She got up and thanked us all for our service before orienting us to the days events... never speaking of her own sacrifice. When I heard her name, I knew and I approached her to tell her that I had been assigned to the Co. TOC the day that he had died. I told her that I organized the rescue effort and did everything I could, and that I was sorry. I held it together to speak to her, but this has always been a hard one to swallow. I think of him and his family often, along with the others we lost, but he was the first. They tell me he volunteered for the deployment, and the mission. He went above and beyond, and was a roll model to his men.

Excellent PIF, Don. NOT in

dangerousdon said:

So to recap:

Must have Active Duty or Veteran Badge
US/APO/FPO addresses only

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I'd be in, but the mods have not updated badges in at least a few weeks.

Also, our ship lost an Apache pilot and navigator during Desert Shield/Storm. I was just a radioman, but I'll never forget having to add in KIA: 2 for the daily sitrep.

danbuter said:

I'd be in, but the mods have not updated badges in at least a few weeks.

Also, our ship lost an Apache pilot and navigator during Desert Shield/Storm. I was just a radioman, but I'll never forget having to add in KIA: 2 for the daily sitrep.

Click to expand...

Don't worry your in. Thanks for sharing, thanks for remembering, and thanks for serving.

Sent from the Danger Phone

I'm in.

I would just like to remember all of the service members who have walked the walk and are still walking the walk. I remember getting alerted in early Aug 1990 as part of our DRB that we were heading overseas. I was with 4/101 and we were prepped (as all the DRB rotations are) but we were the ones on schedule so away we went. We landed at King Fahd airport and that was to become our "home" for the next few months. I did have one friend who was with the 82nd who died in a non-combat related accident. We had some close calls, I even have a framed bullet on the wall that I dug out of the armor or the Blackhawk after a drop off mission.

So to all of those brothers and sisters in all branches who gave their all, my utmost respect. To all of the Gold star mothers, you also have my utmost respect.

So I just realized that I didn't tell my Memorial Day story. It isn't a happy one and the Marine that I am about to talk about didn't die in combat...though it was combat that took his life. I was a Marine stationed in Hawaii when I met a fellow marine named Travis Twiggs. He was a good Marine...wait...scratch that...he was the perfect Marine. Always excelled at everything he did and always willing to help a marine out. Twiggs was in my platoon and we trained together and drank together. But like a lot of people...when I got out of the service (the first time around) I lost touch with my friend Travis.

It wasn't until after his death that I found out that Travis had passed away. Naturally I was sad. I was even more sad when I found out what happened. There is a lot of detail to Travis Twiggs' life...and you can read about it here: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/09/29/the-last-tour. But in a nut shell, after four combat tours to Iraq and one to Afghanistan, my friends spirit was wounded beyond mend. Travis had severe PTSD. He and his brother drove to Arizona from Virginia by way of New Orleans where he picked up his brother. Once in Arizona..the Grand Canyon actually...Travis and his brother drove off the side where there was no guard rail. The vehicle got caught up in a tree and they got out and left the car. While the park rangers, police, and toe trucks were tending to the vehicle, the brothers stole another vehicle and if I was told correctly ended up in a high speed chase across Arizona. Once they finally stopped, Travis shot his brother and then shot himself.

It is a horrible story and I cry almost every time I think of it. PTSD is nothing to joke about. Travis, while in the Marine Corps wrote a letter to the Marine Corps Gazette and titled it, "The War Within." I know the article posted above is very long so I don't blame anyone for not wanting to read it. But the video I have posted below is only three and a half minutes long. Someone put Travis' letter to verse and made a video of it. Some of the pics in the video are not all that great but it's the letter that matters. Anyway...this is one of the ways that I remember the fallen. Thank you for putting up with this post...but service members with PTSD are truly the "Walking Wounded." Be patient with those guys...because they hurt too.

This needs a ​BUMP.

I would love to get more people in on this but I am sure the few people who are in right now would love for this to be it.

I'm in.

I was lucky enough to be 'doc'... A hospital corpsman. I usually spend these holidays thinking of my brothers and sisters still in service and those that never came home. I made friends that will last a lifetime, and lost more than I care to think of. I graduated Corps school with 54 guys. Only 12 of us are still alive as of now.

If I can use this as a platform for a second though, everyone always thinks of the "visible wounds" during these holidays... The amputees, etc. Sometimes the mental casualties are just as bad, so if anyone is considering donating please consider any of the "22 a day" foundations. Casualties on the field of battle are unavoidable, so let's do all we can to minimize those that occur when service members return.

Yeah, many Iraq War veterans have committed suicide after returning home.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/nation/2014/10/31/suicide-deaths-us-military-war-study/18261185/

http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area...veterans-day-suicide-has-caused-more-american

I'm in....

I'm in, been in the Navy almost 16 years. Fortunately, I haven't had to say goodbye to anyone I personally served with, at least from combat related death. But, I will still remove my cover, say a prayer, and raise my glass to those that gave it all.

Hello men, I am in. Thank you for serving, one and all.
May God have mercy on us all.

AnotherChef said:

I'm in....

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Temp81 said:

I'm in, been in the Navy almost 16 years. Fortunately, I haven't had to say goodbye to anyone I personally served with, at least from combat related death. But, I will still remove my cover, say a prayer, and raise my glass to those that gave it all.

Click to expand...

Morman Bridge said:

Hello men, I am in. Thank you for serving, one and all.
May God have mercy on us all.

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Glad to have all of you in on this!

I'm in.

USAF from 1990-2010. For Memorial Day, remembering some KIAs from my community...
Tim Hahn, killed in the Khobar Tower bombing
Ried Nishizuka, killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan just last year.

I'm in.

I had the good fortune to spend most of the stretch from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s on active duty in Europe, and was privileged to observe some of the amazing ways our European allies still commemorate American sacrifices there, to include the beautiful Memorial Day ceremonies held every year at Madingley American Cemetery, near Cambridge, England, and at Henri Chappelle Cemetery in Belgium. Even more moving was a Christmas Eve mass I attended in the caves near Maastricht, the Netherlands, where American forces spent Christmas 1944 before heading into the Battle of the Bulge, and where many had carved their unit patches into the soft limestone walls. It was humbling to see the respect still felt by the locals, nearly 50 years later.