The Viper Pilot was away for a few weeks back in January so I thought I’d surprise him by organizing our life.
& when I say life, I mean the office.
This took days (during Owen’s nap time when I, too, should have been napping – HA! sleep is for the weak). I came across a photo frame that I’d bought almost two years ago and realized that I never got around to doing anything with it. Well, I said, no time is better than the present. Unless Owen wakes up and then it will have to wait.
If you or your spouse is in the military, and maybe more specifically a military pilot, then you probably understand why this can quickly become a problem:
This isn’t even all of them. So. many. patches. In piles. Stuck to everything. Everywhere.
Patches are memories.
Memories of places we’ve lived, our various squadron families, aircraft he’s flown, deployments, TDYs, there’s the name tags with all the random call signs he’s had before he dropped in combat or something bad ass like that and got to keep his current name forever, the time when the fiscal cliff canceled their training plans due to insufficient funds, some even date back to his academy days and the flying team, and the hilarious class patches from UPT (back when I believed 12+ hour work days and night weeks did not exist outside of UPT, heh heh, ignorance is bliss). And then there’s the connections to other squadrons all around the world. Like the time he flew and trained with the Greeks.
Photo credit: 343 squadron commander
The patches represent our wild and crazy Air Force life.
Been there. Done that. There’s a patch for that.
They’re too cool to stuff in a drawer. Since we already have his “I love me” wall room (which, by the way, proudly displays my Master’s degree) I figured the patches on display would be a nice addition.
I went to the craft store and bought a yard of felt. It is an obvious choice fabric for patches to stick to, but there are plenty of other options, like VELTEX. I’m just a tightwad. There are several color options available – I suggest black or beige so the colorful patches stand out.
If you don’t plan on rearranging the patches too often, the felt will work fine. The velcro loops are pretty unforgiving and the fabric will start to fray and get stringy every time you pull a patch off.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- a large photo/poster frame
- backing board (if the frame doesn’t have one)
- felt or VELTEX
- some form of adhesive (staples, 3M spray adhesive, duct tape, etc.)
- cork board
- patches – LOTS and LOTS of patches
Janelle Vannice says
This is awesome. I can't wait for Dan to start UPT… I know days will be crazy, but the pilot community is much more fun than the grad school community, haha. It's nice to have a project already in my head for when he starts getting all those patches! 🙂