Ed: Thank you for recognizing our military veterans. You are exactly correct, as a nation we need to support these folks while they are on active duty, AND after they are discharged.
For the past 10 years I've volunteered with a local veteran support organization, Warriors and Quiet Waters (warriorsandquietwaters.org). I can tell you from first hand experience there are a LOT of veterans that are suffering from physical and mental trauma at levels most of us can't comprehend. As one dimension of this issue, approximately 20 veterans a
day commit suicide, and most have impacts from PTSD or TBI.
As a knife making community, we have a unique opportunity to serve these vets by sharing our craftsmanship skills. I recently invited a vet friend to work in my shop making knives. He's an example of so many veterans that need an activity to focus on and find rewards in using their hands. Over a 3 day period he crafted 2 knives that are replicas of a backup knife he carried in combat. He did all the work, I just supervised and guided his steps.
I'm not sure who got the most satisfaction from this activity, him or me. Quite an experience for both of us. We are planning on doing this again this winter.
The knife on the left is his original knife, the two on the right are the replicas he made.
He was very proud of how they turned out.
