Retirement Gift Ideas

[Dawgfan]

The guy (helo pilot) I am replacing at my current billet is retiring. It's a very civilian heavy organization so I'm going to spearhead his retirement gift.

Looking for some ideas. Should it reflect his last three years at this specific organization? Or his helo years? Navy in general?

Thanks for the input!

 

[Jim123]

My favorite farewell keepsake, the one that really makes me smile and reminisce when I look at it, is a hand-painted squadron picture in one of those "everyone sign your name" mattes. (The painting is no "Picasso," it's an oil painting that is more like a paint-by-numbers for grownups, but that's beside the point.)

Wooden plaques are always classy. One of my friends stained a $10 board from the hobby shop (one of those boards with routed edges specifically for mounting stuff), slapped on a little brass plate from the local trophy shop, and mounted a scrap aircraft part. Very special and didn't break the bank.

 

[zippy]

If they've got a sense of humor-The book- Fashion for Dummies, and one of those cool new helo bottle openers.

 

[Renegade One]

... and one of those cool new helo bottle openers.

Maybe a case of "assorted bottles" (taster's sampler) to go with?

What are his outside interests? May spur some more ideas…

 

[zippy]

He's got to opcheck the thing... And he's a hinge so you're gonna have to demo it at least twice for him to get it, so definitely a 12 pack.

 

[Flying Low]

Depending on the budget you can have a plaque with the patches from all his past commands on it. Either an actual patch or made by the plaque company. The picture attached is what I did for the last COC. It has all the Dets that deployed during the Skippers time as both XO and CO. It can get pricey but there are ways to get the cost down. Smaller size, less stuff on the plaque, etc. Just have his name, dates, wings and all his past commands. The round one below would probably work well. I'm going to do something like this when I retire.

 

[Hozer]

 

[SynixMan]

To follow onto @Hozer 's idea, a lot of places will do custom bottle labels(Woodford Reserve comes to mind).

Things Remembered also has a legit decanter you can get engraved, or I've heard of people engraving actual liquor/champagne bottles.

 

[Renegade One]

 

[Flash]

Depending on how much you want to spend there was a guy in Annapolis that made giant brass aviator wings, they cost $400 or so though. We got one for my boss who was retiring a few years ago, very cool guy who happened to be my first DH when I was an Ensign, and I got a pair too for the 'I love me room'. They are about 3 or more feet across and weigh 15-20 pounds....and they are AWESOME!

 

[N4Life]

We had someone with an aileron painted with a scene from that tour and I've heard of a CO who received a surfboard painted depicting his career from Midi to Command (he use to surf competitively).

 

[Pags]

We had someone with an aileron painted with a scene from that tour and I've heard of a CO who received a surfboard painted depicting his career from Midi to Command (he use to surf competitively).

Or you could get a Naval Aviation skateboard if he's into concrete waves:
http://kotalongboards-store.mwrc.net/en/category.php?product_category_id=9147

 

[N4Life]

Dawgfan
What did you ultimately get?