The awards your CO wishes they could give
SN Timmy keeps getting voluntold. We keep making the awards he earns.
Follow the story. When Timmy earns a ribbon, it lands in the shop. If you lived it too, the award is yours.
Unauthorized gear. Authentic you.
The one who earns them
Meet Timmy Voluntoldaka SN Timmy
“Never promoted. Always available.”
Seaman · Permanent E-3 · Every working party
He gets every extension, every field day, every inspection and every “quick favour.” He does not suffer any of it quietly.
Current edition
Somebody who was actually there
Hey, I’m Steven. After 20 years in the Navy as a Master-at-Arms, I followed the responsible retirement plan. I went back to school, earned a degree in Human Resources, earned my SPHR, and started working in HR. I am still in school today, pursuing my MS-MSL at Michigan State University. Go Green.
And I loved HR. I still do. But loving the work and fitting into the traditional workforce turned out to be two different things. I kept trying to make myself fit a structure that no longer fit me, my family, or the life I was trying to build after the Navy. Eventually I stopped treating that like a personal failure. NTE is what happened next.
Not The Exchange grew out of the parts of military life that never make it into an awards manual: miserable jobs, ridiculous traditions, shared suffering, questionable decisions, and stories that somehow get funnier once they are over. Those moments deserve recognition too. That is what I make here — original, unofficial gear and the awards your CO wishes they could give.
I design and make the products myself while continuing my education, raising a family, and building work around my life instead of forcing my life around work.
Steven Founder · Retired Navy MA · Husband and dad