WT Forums

After a year of research, design and construction, I finally finished a memorial shadow box to my Father.



US Navy Aviation Machinest Mate, PO-3, and Flight Engineer on PBM Mariners in WWII. After working in a steel mill for about 10 years, he married my Mother and joined the Air Force, as the Navy didn't pay to keep a sailor's family with them, and the AF would. But since the AF didn't allow enlisted to be Flight Engineers, he became a weather forcaster. He was medically retired in '61 after suffering a Brain Hemorrige while stationed in France. He pasted away last year from COPD, at the age of 80.

Due to his brain injury, he'd never remembered much of his Navy and AF days, so it took a lot of research to come up with his history. Time well spent.


The pics, TL: My Dad in a hatchway abord the USS Pine Island in the Sea of Japan between patrols.

BL: Pic of the flight deck of a PBM Mariner taken by my Dad from the Flight Engineers station during a long patrol.

RI: my Dad in the Snow at Ladd Army Air Field in Fairbanks AK, (now called Fort Wainright).

RO: my Dad as an A1C shortly after Tech school.

Construction:
Curly Cherry with Walnut accents. The Flag is his Burial Flag, and the shell casings joining the flag case to the box are from his 21 gun salute. I drilled them out to conceal 1/4-20 bolts joining the two boxes. The U.S. Collar brass pens, he'd given to me when I joined the AF in '77. I wore them on my blues for the entire 27 years. The bracelet in the center is his USN ID Bracelet used in lew of Dog Tags. It sets on a Walnut elliptical stand I made on the band saw.

Thanks for looking and comments are always welcome

_________________
Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

man that looks really good...i like that wood alot.... dad's shadow box was walnut base with maple stripes....his was a chief chevron, I'd share but I don't know how to post pics from my pic file

That is a very nice job that you did. It is a great tribute to your father.
He served in the pacific at WW2, if i read that correct?

You can be proud to him and proud to have now that tribute for him.

_________________
73-1664

Thanks for the comments guys. Yeah Dutchy, he was at NAS Coco Solo in the Panama Canal Zone during the war, and afterward was reassigned to the Sea of Japan as part of the Army Of Occupation.

Cajun, the best way I've found to post pics on line is to use an on-line photo hosting web site. I use Photobucket. Once you establish an account with them, you can up-load pics from your computer to the Photobucket site. Once there, you can resize and even edit them if you want. You can also catagorize them into multiple albums and subalbums. Then when you want to share pics on sites like this, you just open a second web window and go to your site, find the pic you want to insert into your text field here, and just hold the cursor over the pic for a second. A dropdown menu will appear with 4 different addresses for your pic. The 4th is the one you want, just right click on the 4th address, and pick Copy from the flyout menu. Then pick back onto this tab and just paste it into the text of the post you are making. In the text of the message, all you'll see is a bunch of text, but once you pick either Preview or Submit at the bottom of the page, the pic will apprear in the post.

BTW, Did I mention that a basic account on photobucket is FREE?

Give it a shot and feel free to ask for help if you have problems. I know it's a little confusing at first, but after a few times you won't even have to think about it.

_________________
Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

Wow Ice that is amazing, beautiful job and great craftsmanship. It looks wonderful.

_________________
\"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives\"

All I can say is WOW One hell of a job and one hell of a nice display!

To your dad....

That's nothing short of beautiful. The shell casings are a particularly nice touch, something I never would have thought of doing.

OC

Well done, IP. Both the wood work and the tribute.

_________________
\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

Thanks so much for your warm replies and comments guys. Gives me the feeling that I might just be getting the hang of this woodworking stuff. Above and beyond that though, I really enjoyed learning more about my Father's service in both the Navy and Air Force with my research to pull this together.

_________________
Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

IP, thanks for the help with the pic uploads....photobucket works like a champ. Once again nice work on the box it looks geat

IP Like I said their all great work and they deserve our
Deepest Thanks and Respect for their service



Goose

_________________
\"Live Free Or Die\"