Hi Guys,
A forum member mentioned this thread to me. Thanks for the kind comments.
As you might expect I have a lot of military customers as we are located about 100m from an Army Base.
Some have been customers for over 10 years.
I don't donate to charities such as cancer, heart foundation etc but quite early on in my business I decided to support military related causes, usually by donating items for fund raising (Andy of K&C recently joined in to provide items for a fundraiser I had mentioned to him)..
My father was British Army and from a very early age my ambition was to join the Army. However ended up joining the Royal Hong Kong Police instead.
I have seen thousands of soldiers in my shop and some of those who have died overseas I have recognised as being customers. One of the earliest Australian fatalities in the current campaign was a customer as was his father.
A few years ago a Warrant Officer ordered a replica medal set from us and when he came to pick it up he mentioned it was for the family of a soldier killed overseas. I told him there would be no cost.
Since then I now approach the unit concerned to offer free medal sets for the family members such as parents, wife and children. In the most recent
fatality we will be doing a mini medal set for a child whose birth will be late next month.
The current deployment in Afghanistan is mainly made up of soldiers from the base nearby. The LTCOL in command of the deployment, one of his Patrol Base CAPT"s and the Battalion Adjutant (3rd generation soldier) have been customers for a few years. They lost three of their soldiers in the past week.
The current deployment has lost 4 Infantry and 2 Engineers (from neighbouring base) in the last two months which unfortunately is far more than any other Australian deployment overseas since Vietnam.
Providing the medal sets is just my wife and I's way of supporting the troops and their families and very happy to do it.
Regards
Brett
LEST WE FORGET.
PS In all the press and TV interviews with family members I have never seen the family of a deceased soldier citicise the Govt, Army or the soldier for being overseas. All, whilst obviously distressed, have pointed out that their loved one died doing something they strongly believed in. They are just a brave as the fallen soldiers.
