Military Ring Info

Do you remember the 5 Americans who were captured in Pakistan recently? One of them left a farewell video for his family as he didn’t expect to return home alive. They didn’t get an opportunity to commit any deeds before they were captured with incrimminating evidence on them.

The five claim that they have been tortured at the hands of the Pakistanis and shocked with electric prods. Now my venerable military ring customers I’m not saying that they were not tortured because I wasn’t there. But sometimes there is a price to doing business. What I am saying O custom military ring customer of mine is that you pay the cost to be the boss. If you can’t take it don’t dish it out.

When I think of this war on terror, I think about the thousands of innocents killed by terrorists. I think of the people who I saw beheaded on TV. I think about the innocents that the Taliban is using for shields. Then I think so what is a little torture compared to all of that? Now I will not tell you that my thinking is right on this one because its not, but its just thought and not action. I may say some things that are kind of out there but I don’t really advocate torture.

Let me say it to you like this my beloved military ring customers. If you decide to play the game, don’t get upset when the game decides to play you.   

I came up with the idea of doing this post this morning after I ran into one of my customers from waaay back. Sergeant Major Kaiser came to me after he had returned from the first Operation Iraqi Freedom to have a military ring made. He, his wife, and I worked on the custom military ring for awhile and I got to know them during the process of us putting it together. He needed his custom military ring to be his military retirement ring also because he was in the process of putting in his retirement papers.

We worked until we got him exactly what he wanted and his wife presented it to him at his retirement that next month. That was back in 2001 if I remember correctly. I just happened to run into him this morning at a convenience store and asked him how the ring was holding up. I was happy as a lark when I found out that his ring was just fine. He had no complaints whatsoever. Now my beloved military ring customers that is what I’m talking about.

This is a true story. We want you to rest assured that when you get your ring from us you will never have a problem that we can’t resolve.

Operation Enduring Seperation has been an ongoing operation which effects every branch of the Armed Forces and touches every family member regardless of age, race, sex, religion, or ethnicity.

Operation Enduring Seperation touches each and every one of my military ring customers, whether they are Army ring customers, Navy ring customers, Air Force ring customers, Marine ring customers, Coast Guard ring customers, etc. It doesn’t matter if they are Navy SEAL ring, customers, Special Forces ring customers, Delta Force, Army Rangers, Force Recon or what have you.

Operation Enduring Seperation speaks for the time when troops are seperated from their loved ones while discharging their sworn duties to their country. It speaks for the time that they have spent sleeping on the ground on top of ice and snow. It speaks for each and every wet and miserable experience that they have ever gone through while serving their country. It speaks for the times they have been caught in dust storms, rainstorms, blizzards, and heat waves.

This operation speaks especially for the times that they have been seperated from their husbands, wives, and children for months at a time. It speaks of the father of that new born who is now a year old and doesn’t even recognize him when he sees him.

It speaks for the mother who has just been moved to a place that she knows nothing about when her husband had to leave as soon as they got there. It speaks of her survival with several small children, a salary too small to even feed them, and a husband who is too far away to be of any help. It speaks further of the time that that husband finds that he will have to stay deployed for an extra six months, he only found out a few days before he was to return back home.

We need the support of every American man, woman, and child for those who have to participate in operation enduring seperation. Support our troops. 

The remains of a Navy Pilot who has been missing since 1967 have finally been found. Maj Russell C Goodman and Lt Gary Thornton were shot down in February 1967 when the F4- Phantom that they were flying was hit by fire from an enemy jet while on a bombing mission over North Vietnam. The F-4 was launched from the USS Enterprise.

Lt Gary was able to eject from the burning jet but Maj Thornton was not able to escape from the aircraft. Lt Gary was subsequently captured by the North Vietnamese and held as a POW for about six years.

Maj Thornton’s remains were ultimately identified by his DNA and he will be laid to rest in Alaska after being honored in Nellis AFB Nevada.

We are always happy to hear about the remains of our old Vietnam warriors being returned home from that war. We are also hoping for the final accounting of all POW’s of that war. We realize that there are still many missing servicemen and unaccounted for POW’s. We also honor them through the creation of Pilot’s rings, and rings for POW/MIA’s. We send our best wishes and regards to all of their family members.  

Retirement is a very special time for the person who has made the military a career and should be commemorated with a special piece of military jewelry. Many of the military ring customers that I get are retirees who want to design a custom military retirement ring.

It normally takes them a while to figure out exactly what they want since they have done so much during their time in service. The person in the picture above is one such customer. You can see the joy on his face. He is joyful to be retiring and glad to have his new ring.

There are so many ways that you can design your military ring that I like to listen to the customer tell the parts of the story that he or she wants to tell. Then I like to figure out a way to piece all of it together onto a custom military ring.

Most  of the customers that you see in these pictuers are army ring customers because we were located on an army base. We can design marine corps rings, air force rings, and navy rings also.  

Most of the military ring customers that we have choose celestrium as their metal for very good reason. First of all if you are a younger soldier like the gentleman and his family pictured here you may be on a tight budget. If this is so you can design a celestrium military ring because it looks almost exactly like the gold ring. I know how to tell the difference because I have dealt with all of the metals for quite a while but most people can’t.

The celestrium military ring is more durable than gold and it is a good choice when you plan to wear your military ring every day. Jewelers love this metal because it is so easy to mold and work with, yet it is exceptionally strong. It is good to purchase early in your military career because you may want to design a gold military ring later on. Most of my older customers who are about to make their last military ring purchase will want either the 10 or 14kt gold military ring.

I don’t know how many of you younger military ring customers are aware of the punji stake but I am sure that every one of you Vietnam ring customers are acquainted with them. The reason I say this is because that is where they were used.

The punji stake was a sharpened piece of wood or some other material placed in a shallow pit with the spiked end pointed up. The stick was sometimes covered with some type of poison or even human excrement so that when you stepped on it it would penetrate and cause a nasty infection or painful poisoning.

The stick was put in the pit which was then covered with debris so that you wouldn’t see it. The whole purpose was to wound rather than kill because when a combatant is wounded it takes several others to care for him which effectively takes them out of the action. As far as I know the Vietnam War was the only place where this particular improvised weapon was used. If I am wrong will one of you custom military ring customers let me know?

This is the term that I learned in the military for using ropes and other military hardware to descend from heights which are too steep to descend by foot. The German derivitave of this word is “abseiling.”

Rappelling was introduced to the world by Jean Esteril Charlet who was a mountain guide. The military application of rappelling is normally with light infantry units, spec ops units, and air assault units.

This is typically a technique that you would see a unit such as the 10th Mountain Division use frequently.

There are several different types of rappelling techniques which may be used depending on the circumstances that the descender finds himself in.

The technique that we are most familiar with is the regular feet first rappell where the descender leans back over the edge of the cliff and allows his upper body to descend until he begins to fall. At that time he or she will take two or three small steps to maintain balance. Ideally the descender will keep his body at a 90 degree angle and descend using either small steps or jumps. This is what you see pictured above.

The Australian rappell is used when the descender needs to look down as he or she descends. This position is good if he needs to return fire or just needs to know whats happening on the ground below.

The final military application that I will talk about here is the technique that Special Operations, and Airmobile ring customers use to descend from helicopters. The technique which was used more when I was in the military was to exit in the same position as the regular rappell, but now I think fast roping is used more. With fast roping the operator simply grabs the rope and slides down. This is convenient because when he gets to the ground he doesn’t have toremove a harness or any other equipment. He simply releases the rope and continues the mission. Now I don’t know that much about this last one because I’ve never done it, but if any of you custom military ring customers can explain it better please do so.

The US military first used the concept of the Firebase to support its operations during the Vietnam War. The thick jungles of Vietnam restricted movement of most heavy equipment so the firebase had to be utilized.

Essentially the firebase was an artillery emplacement which was carved out of the jungle. Most times equipment and supplies had to be brought in by helicopter. The firebase was placed in an area where it could best support operations of the infantry which was assigned control of the area. The artillery units had to be prepared to turn the howitzers around to provide 360 degree support to the area. The firebase had to be well fortified to protect itself from enemy artillery and mortars, and from being overrun by infantry.

Tactics used by custom military ring customers these days are very different because tactics have to be adapted to the time that you are serving in.