Special Donor Coin

[Gary W. Graley]

A while back, almost 8 years to the day on Dec 24th 2001
this coin was mailed to me by a friend, Greg Mete aka Kodiak PA
on most knife forums, he was stationed at the time in Kodiak Alaska in
the Coast Guard there.

I had sent him a knife as a gift and in return, as some will do, give
the donor a coin in return, so as not to sever the friendship and
this was the coin he decided to send! here is an excerpt from his letter;

"The medallion coin was presented to me by the Master Chief Petty Officer
of the Coast Guard in Nov 1991, when I helped rescue several hundred Haitian
refugees that were trying to escape Haiti and make it to the US.
We had, in just two patrols, nearly 5,000 people that we interdicted. I was
the only medical person on board to treat all of the sick and injured.
The Master Chief gave me this coin as a token of his appreciation.
The MCPOCG is given a few hundred of these coins to give out
during his 4 year tenure, so they are quite rare..."

and I was digging through my book case and found the letter and coin
that I had set aside for safe keeping and decided to take a photo of it
with my new Canon 5D mark ii and the Canon 100mm F2.8 macro

and a full size of the image;

other side of the coin;

and a full size of the image;

Nice memory and of course, I just love photographing coins
G2

 

[Kodiak PA]

Hey G2: Wow! I almost forgot about that coin. I'm thrilled that you still have it. I remember when the MCPOCG gave that to me in Cuba. It's hard to believe that has been nearly 20 years ago. How time flies. I hope you're well Gary. It was very nice of you to post this...and....awesome photo by the way!

Merry Christmas to you and your family. Lets stay in touch.

Greg

 

[ralphtt]

Gary and Greg . . .
Good to see both you guys posting again. Gary's posts aren't all that rare, but I haven't see anything from you, Greg, since the days of the Lynn . . . (forgot the last name) forum.

Hope you are still doing well.

Both of you have a good holiday season!

 

[Kodiak PA]

Hi Ralph...good to see you again, too. It's like old home week when I do post on BFC. I actually have been around the forums a lot more lately it's just that I don't post very often. I see we have a lot of new "experts" here so nobody needs much info from a guy who has been in since '98.

The guy you're referring to was Lynn Griffith. A talented but very controversial knife maker. I still have a knife from him in my workshop called the Marksman. I use it quite a bit.

Happy Holidays to you too.

 

[stjames]

Very nice story about two of my favorite "old timers". Merry Christmas to you both, I hope you and your family's have a great New Year!

 

[Kodiak PA]

Ohh boy! There's a blast from the past...Mr. STJAMES. Heya sir...good to see you. A guy who uses a knife more than most anyone I know. Happy holidays to you, too!

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Aye?
you'll have to type louder, us old timers can't hear as gud as we use ta

And yep, old home week! perfect time of year for that too, have a Very Merry Christmas to you all,
G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

A memory resurfaces, as we were cleaning up the house in order to show to some prospective buyers, fingers still crossed, I found this letter from 2001, with the coin still in and the typed up letter, brought a big smile to my face, but boy, TIME sure does fly by !!! now it's 2016 so just about 15 years have gone by since getting that coin.

G2

 

[Velitrius]

"Time flies by" indeed, G2... I just signed up on BFC a short time ago, and 16 years has gone by. What a rush. Neat memory, even neater coin!

Good luck on the real estate venture. Let us know if it goes through, and we'll tilt a single malt your direction.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks good sir, and nothing firm on selling yet, would like to get moved before winter shows it's frosty beard near our door, but we can't lower our price as we'll need those funds in order to get the next house.

My wife says we will not be living in a van...down by the river...

G2