Here’s a look at a recent custom order we delivered to a fellow Marine Corps unit for a Marine’s going-away gift. Going away gifts are given to service members by their peers whenever the service member transfers to a new unit or leaves military service.
This version was designed to look like the Marine Corps’ dress blues uniform.
As we always do, we created a chest made of solid wood for added durability. We then painted the top in semi-gloss black on both the inside and out.
The outside was painted blue, to represent the Dress Blues trousers. We added an NCO Blood Stripe running down the center, like NCOs wear in their trousers.
We added gold box corners, hinges and latches to look like the gold buttons on the dress blues coat.
On the top of the chest we added a black placard with the Marine’s Rank, Name, dates of service, and his unit. The placard was also painted black, with red piping around it – to represent the black piping on the dress blues coat. The letters were white, just like the name tapes used while on recruiting duty.
Inside the chest is also decked out and personalized to match the themes. The inside of the chest was stained red mahogany, to give it a classic and traditional look. It’s always great to see the wood grain whenever you can. After all, you pay good money to have a solid piece of wood, you might as well see it.
The inside of the lid was decorated with various cards which contain colors used in the Marine Corp’s benefit tags. Inside of each tag we added the name of a recruit the Marine mentored during his tour as a canvassing recruiter. We Then added the Marine’s peers, the rest of his team, inside the lid directly on the lid.
We then closed then inside lid with a piece of plexiglass to protect it from damage.
This chest can be presented as-is, or filled with additional gifts personalized for the recipients. Suggestions include unit patches, coins, a folded flag, books, a nice bottle 😉, a nice congratulatory cigar, etc.
