Hi,

You may have read a recent post I made concerning an injured soldier that was in Iraq. Our local fishing board has taken into their on hands to do something special for him and his family. So we asked ourselves what gift could we offer this soldier whom we know pretty much nothing about?

His dad is a member of our board and we know they love to bass fish, so what better gift than a fishing rod? So that is where we are, in the process of getting this fine man a completely rigged custom fishing pole along with one just like it for his dad.

When I posted questions on here last week we had a fine gentleman that goes by the name Mr. Joe Meehan from American Tackle Company, Inc [americantackle.us] He took it upon himself to offer us the components needed to complete our task. We didn't expect anything like this but we applaud him for his efforts and generosity for making the wonderful gesture.

Today we need military insignia to put on these rods but do not know where to come about getting anything like this. You fine folks I'm sure know where I can go about finding these items so we can implement these into our rod scheem.

He wants four things on his rod which are listed below

The American flag
[www.ushistory.org]

The Purple Heart "which he recieved"
[www.purpleheart.org]

His divisions patch "3rd infantry division"
[www.warfoto.com]

And the words
"Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)

Thank You for your time and help with this most worthy cause.

Chip Cummings
inshoreslam@gmail.com

If you don't want to attempt weaving them, I highly recommend touching base with Jimi Ellis of Decal Connection, one of the sponsors. If Jimi can't make what you are looking for, it can't be done.

That is a lot of weaving to do. I just finished a weave of E-9 first seargant stripes for a retiring AF member. That was enough to push me over the edge. I would go through the Decal Connection to the left. One idea is to do a flag wrap, and use decals for the rest.

I cast a lot of military insignia in my encapsulated grips but you are asking for "To Much" stuff to be done in full size. I've never used decals but in this case I think that would be the way to go as they can be downsized to fit. Jesse

Thank you guys for doing this for this soldier. I am new to rod building, don't think I would be much help. My son finished his tour in Iraq in february. He is in the 1st Infantry ( Big Red One ). I want to say thank you to this soldier for his service to our country. I know that his family is just as proud of their son as we are of ours. I am in the process of building my first rod. I am having a blast. My rod is also a patriotic format with red -- white and blue wrappings and U.S. flag decals.