Framing

rock25

5-Year Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
12
Any creative ideas for framing a USMA LOA and Appointment Letter?
 
The advice was.... don't do it. The acceptance letter, and LOA.... mean NOTHING when he/she graduates. Put it in a scrap book. That's where my LOAs and acceptance letters are.

I'm out of the Coast Guard now and at a regulatory agency in DC now, and just above my desk in my office is my CGA diploma. Sometimes people ask about it. I like it up there. Diplomas are fine objects to have framed. Commissions are nice. A big award isn't bad either (I have the write up for a medal from the oil spill framed, because at that point I knew I was getting out).

No one needs to see an acceptance letter or an LOA. 1/3 of my classmates who had those letters never got the more important document, a diploma.
 
Don't know about Army, Air Force and Coast Guard but Navy has some great frames for Graduation Diploma and Commission Document. As LITS said acceptance and LOA is for the four year folder if you make the four (with proper plastic coating). They can look upon it later but the best is the big ones signed and for the wall. That framing was one of our graduation presents which she didn't expect. Like you would just throw that in a drawer. Still don't know where our's are.:shake:
 
Not to mention that fact that... if she doesn't make it, that framed letter will get very old.

My wife's extended family member went to the Naval Academy. His family had a portrait made of him in his uniform. Big big photo in their living room. Then he got the boot, but the picture remains. I don't know if they like it, but if I was a cadet/midshipman and I never graduated, you can be sure I wouldn't make that photo the center piece of my living room.

Of course, that's why drop outs developed the convienant "story" to tell people. Had a guy in my office from the class of 1995 at CGA. He lasted two years. Told my civilian co-workers he left to make room for others and that he had other options. The truth was he had numerous conduct issues and left just before a conduct/suitability board was held. You can lie to civilians, but it's generally hard to make the fake stories work with grads.
 
My wife's extended family member went to the Naval Academy. His family had a portrait made of him in his uniform. Big big photo in their living room. Then he got the boot, but the picture remains. I don't know if they like it, but if I was a cadet/midshipman and I never graduated, you can be sure I wouldn't make that photo the center piece of my living room.

Of course, if his life went downhill from there, sometimes families want to remember someone at their best...

You want to capture the high point of a life experience. The diploma, commission are examples of that for a cadet. The acceptance letter, picture in uniform for those who come up short would probably be the best that there is for those folks.

Being a superstitious hockey parent type, I definitely wouldn't frame the admission letter in case it causes a failure later on... Just sayin...
 
how about waiting until graduation and framing a LOA, appointment and diploma in a large frame . . .
 
OK, time for the "I Love Me" wall conversation.

During every step throughout your military career, you will be presented with plaques, memorials, photos, Awards/Decs, etc. Particularly when you: leave a current station ("Thanks for your hard work. Here's a piece of wood and a litho we all signed"), make a major milestone ("Congrats on graduating Basic / School / any and everything. Congrats on not getting in trouble and making O-3"), win an award ("Congrats. You're the Company officer of the Quarter for the office. The only other guy eligible won it last quarter, so it's your turn").

The question becomes, "What do I DO with all these things?" Some things you WANT to keep around the house / office / Mom's and Dad's place; the BIG important things like Academy diplomas, your Rating certificates (i.e. Pilot / Nav / Jump / whatever floats your boat (so to speak)), and some pictures IMPORTANT TO YOU. These are the types of things you pay good money for to get in nice frames. set up front and center in your living room. Some recent things you accomplished you might also want to proudly display (Me commisioning my son a couple of months ago is a great example, and hanging right in front in my office). These things may change over time as you accomplish more / get more stuff; AND, you really don't have to get them professionally framed. Walmart / Target have very nice frame sections.

It becomes what we jokingly call your "I Love Me" wall (or in my house, my "I Love Me" office; 25+ years serving, you collect A LOT!). Put up there what is important to YOU, Proudly display it! And you know what, that can change over time; some things important now may be overshadowed by greater things later; your closet or attic eventually becomes full of this kind of stuff.

BL: If the OP wants to frame their Son's LOA, why the heck not! It's a great achievement he accomplised NOW, something they should be proud of NOW. If things change, simply take it down. In 4 years when he graduates, replace it with his diploma. In fact next summer, when he's off to somewhere to do something and has pictures of it, replace it with those then. It's your home, your kid, do what makes YOU happy (He'll get a chance to display what HE wants in HIS house later).

I will say this, however. Posters on here are correct, when he gets farther along, his LOA won't be that big of a deal when compared to other, more worthy, accomplishments (lie his diploam, as stated). So, go to Target, get a nice cheap frame, and put his LOA whereever you want to display it, you should be prooud of this accomplishment and have every rigth to show it. But, it will probalby be gone next year with photos of him jumping out of airplanes, in a funky uniform with a funky hat ("Is that horse hair?"), whatever.
 
Just a correction to Bullet's post. He has his I Love Me room (his study), and has an I Love Me wall in our office. :rolleyes:

The rest of his post I agree with, go buy a cheap frame from Wal-Mart or Target and put it up for now.

Or start a scrap book, not the cheap type, and not the Creative Memories type either, but the old fashion parchment paper type. I think for him he doesn't really care about the LOA or the appointment letter, but you do, and this way in yrs to come and when he is married with kids, they will pull it out after dinner at your house and laugh about those days remembering the emotions.

Think of it like LITS said what if? What if he leaves? Will you want that still on your wall, to professionally frame something properly with matting will cost you upwards of 75 bucks on a good day X 2. What if he does 5 and dive, will you still have that on your wall when he is 42 and left the military 15 yrs ago?

My other piece of advice for why to do the Wal-Mart frame is from a trick I learned while being an AF spouse. Use the same frame for the next award, but keep the first behind it. If you go around my home, certain picture frames are in essence a timeline. Our kids know that in some of them behind that picture is an earlier picture of them, and behind that one is an even earlier picture. You can do the same thing. Place the LOA or the apptmt letter in the frame, and when he receives an award place that on top of it. You now have 4 yrs in chronological order of everything he was ever acknowledge for over the course of his SA life.
 
Just a correction to Bullet's post. He has his I Love Me room (his study), and has an I Love Me wall in our office. :rolleyes:

You forgot my "I Love Me" wall in my office at work. :redface:

But my favorites remain the models of the planes I flew (and the plane I'm working on now).

Like I said, 24+ years, you pick things up... :rolleyes:
 
Agree with what has been stated above.

What do I have framed in my office right now? I have my diploma, nicely framed above my desk.

To the right of my desk I have an official citation from the Connecticut General Assembly for an internship I had as a cadet. I prefer state over federal government and the internship was my taste of it. Plus, it's an official citation, so I think it's "cool".

Behind my desk, next to my bookshelf is my Defense Information School diploma. I debated hanging it, but I ended up doing so for two reasons. First, DINFOS was a great experience and I really liked my classmates (59 classmates representing other services, I was the only Coastie). Second, my DINFOS program was for military public affairs officers. The school contributed to the public affairs/communications person I am today. After I left the Coast Guard I went to a small PR firm in DC. Now I'm somewhere else, still doing communications.

Next to the DINFOS diploma is a framed certificate and citation for my Coast Guard achievement medal. "Now, LITS, why frame that medal? You have other medals, don't you?" Yep. I do. But this medal meant something because it had to do with my role as the creative services unit leader during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response. Twenty years down the road I could point to it and say "my 14 person team pushed 20-40 news releases a day and maintained the content for a federal govt's official website that saw 4 million DAILY visits." We were in the thick of it, in a politically hot mess. And it was a very unique pressure that I had not experienced in any other time of my career. My actions wouldn't lead to a loss of life, but we really were the source for a good chunk of the news the world got. Hit the "release" button... 15 mins later that information is "breaking news" on CNN.

That's all in my office at work. At home in the study (where those documents used to call home), I still have two CG commissions hanging on the wall. Now that I'm out, I probably will only keep them there.

And when I get my master's at GW, that diploma will hang next to my CGA diploma.

Where is my LOA from CGA or USNA? In a box. Where are all of my acceptance letters? In a box. I haven't seen anyone hang those letters, just like I've never seen a college graduate hang their high school diploma on the wall. The importance of an acceptance letter means very little if you graduate and means MUCH LESS if you don't graduate.

Who brags about being accepted to a service academy or receiving a congressional nomination? The people who don't graduate from a service academy. Plain and simple.
 
Not to go off topic too much, but I wanted to share a funny story regarding framing.

Bullet's boss at 1 squadron was politely shown the door, prior to leaving he and his wife invite the squadron hierarchy to his home for a dinner party. (DO, ADOs, FCs and their spouses)

There in the dining room they framed his OER and PRF signed by the Wing King, in the remarks it basically said Does not play well with others! PRF has the box DNP checked. They not only framed it, but highlighted those lines too.:confused::eek::shake:

Talk about awkward. There you sit knowing he was shown the door and on the walls you see it in black and white with a yellow highlight glaring at you while trying to make dinner conversation and not look at the wall!

To this day our friends that attended this party with us laugh about how strange it was sitting there trying to ignore the elephant in the room. I still am not sure whether or not I give it to him to be that in your face or not, but it is not a memory I will ever forget.
 
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