Full-timing and Military Memorabilia

[MrsSquid]

My husband is retired Navy. We are curious as to what other retired military members did with their last uniforms, shadow box, and charge books when they hit the road full-time and sold their sticks and brick home. We do not intend to get a storage unit and had hoped not to burden relatives with care of our stuff. We were just wondering what others chose to do with those types of things. 

[remoandiris]

My wife and I are starting the process to empty our S&B and get ready to sell/full time.

I stripped all rank/patches off my uniforms and gave them to friends/threw them away.  Except for my final service dress uniform.  I plan to be cremated in that someday.  What I'll do with it in the mean time, I do not know.  Probably put it in a vacuum bag or storage bin under the bed.

I have a VERY large shadow box.  Too large.  I am going to give it to a friend of mine from a previous assignment and he will re-purpose it.  He makes shadow boxes for people retiring from my old unit.

I don't know what charge books are, but if no personally identifiable information is in them, and no one wants them, into the trash.  If any important info is in them, scan and put on a thumbs drive or the cloud.  Same with DD214 or any other service related paperwork.

[markandkim]

Documents (awards, citations, ect) were removed from frames and photographed and then disposed of. DD214 is with our important papers. Charge book has also been copied and photographed and disposed of. My shadow box was taken by me son. But if he hadn't taken it, It too would of been recorded and then dismantled / disposed of. Uniforms have all been disposed of. 

I kept my flags with me, without the flag boxes though.

This process was a hard decision, but what else are you going to do with it if you have no one to give it to.

When you die, your kids are going to show up with a 30yd dumpster and dispose of it anyway. Decided to just do it now. Everything, at least has been documented for my pleasure. 

[jorddarb]

Gave most all of it away.  Records are already digitized. Kept some of the newer uniforms for hunting.   You can accumulate a lot of stuff in 31 yrs.

[RV_]

We full timed for seven years 1997-2003, when I retired at age 45 and we left them in boxes with our kids and remaining parents. Our family photos too. However we made our own RV pad with full hookups on family property because we wintered here in NW Louisiana so we could see the kids and grandkids once a year. It is the one on our website below in my sig block. Both our first rig and second rig pics in the photos section of our website were taken there.

The 12X20 srorage shed in the pics was wired, insulated, paneled and plumbed for the washer and dryer. We had a chest freezer and made two lofts for storage and a cedar closet at one end. My Class A and one set of BDUs along with seasonal gear a were stored in it and my I Love Me wall was on those walls in frames just like in my office. Shadow box and other gear were there too. 

We have a stix n brix again and came off the road in 2003 to be here for aging parents. I was 52 my SH was 50. We're moving again to Colorado soon and will have another stix n brix but are going to sell the RV because our travel will be by air tonvisit frinds in Europe and Colombia, South America. We also want to visit Australia and Asia, perhaps Taiwan, China, and India. The only areas we have not lived in or visited for a couple of months.

I liked the idea and planned to do videos and digital pics of them eventually. My youngest son and last will executor is in Denver Colorado with my first Grandson and new granddaughter. Our Granddaughters here are adults and can visit us there. I agree they would be of little use but we have my FIL's flag, shadow box, and his WWII souvenir Japanese swords and his Ike uniform as one of McArthur's honor guard in his military governor residence. These are historical items, some common some rare, and will be donated to the AF Academy for display, and the museums at other bases in Colorado Springs if the kids don't want then. We'll order everything as soon as we get there. We are ditching most of the junk here with sales and donations and trashing the rest.

Everyone who used our antiques and stored our military and heirlooms were family and each had at least one guest room to hang some art, and closet to hang some uniforms. We got it all back.

Burden them, or not. But at least film them.