So, my boyfriend is getting commisioned as a pilot at the end of December and i feel like i should get a present for him but i don't really know what is appropriate. I am kinda new at the whole military girlfriend thing and i don't want to look like a fool around his retired airforce father or him. I want to show him how proud i am of him and all his hard work. any suggestions on the perfect gift?

Depends on your budget. My wife got me a Citizen Skyhawk that I wear to this day. Expect to spend a couple hundred for one of those.

I second the Citizen Skyhawk. I didn't get my husband (boyfriend-soon to be fiance at the time) this for commissioning, but it was a great hit for a christmas present. He barely ever takes it off and he loves having a great watch during UPT....from what I've heard and witnessed, not many use the issued watch over something like this. Granted, I caught a great sale and got the watch for a great price. Had it not been on sale, my husband would have probably not got the watch till our wedding.

My $.02

Can't go wrong getting a watch for him. I too have the skyhawk and love it. Only bad thing with it is that it doesn't have a light. After looking in multiple jewlery stores in a 50 mile radius I finally found the titanium one I wanted for around $325 at JC Pennys in a mall. This was about a year and a half ago.

Watch is a good idea for a pilot, possibly a jinx if he hasn't gone to UPT yet. Here's an entire thread on it. The trend you'll see in that thread is that they're mostly aviator watches and they're mostly quite expensive.

Please keep any watch recommendations in that thread so this doesn't turn a sequel.

Another option is a military/aviation book - 13 pages of recommendations here.

Do you know which UPT base he'll be at? If so, you could get him one of the T-6 lithographs from the base he'll be flying at. (Not sure if you'll know which squadron either.)

https://www.squadrongraphics.com

Or possibly some new sunglasses (not aviators) if he doesn't have some good ones yet.

Thread for that too...

https://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/index...?showtopic=4025

Edited December 2, 200816 yr by r6pilot

i was talking to a friend who has a brother who commisioned with the navy and she said a few of them got swords since they were officially officers.... is this significant also with airforce officers?

i was talking to a friend who has a brother who commisioned with the navy and she said a few of them got swords since they were officially officers.... is this significant also with airforce officers?

Only if they're Academy (USAFA) grads.

When my husband commissioned I got him a nice clock from Things Remembered that sits on his nightstand. I had it engraved, something simple like "I'm proud of you" will do just fine. I spent like $50 on the clock.

This might be splitting hairs, but is your boyfriend commisioning as an officer or is he getting his wings from UPT?

My husband is also commissioning in Dec. I found a nice AF collage frame, I had him go take a nice military portrait at Wal-Mart and im putting that and some of his other nice ROTC pics in it. Its a nice rembrance and cheap gift that he can keep for a while. Im also letting him get a lift on his Jeep. Im pretty sure he'll be most excited about that.

Your his girlfriend and he doesn't expec much except anything he wants/needs he can buy himself.

My brother got me a M9. Where as a sword is tradition, an M9 is an officer carries today. Also, becoming a pilot, he figured correctly that I would carry it alot into a war zone and thought it was best that I was a good aim w/ it.

My girlfriend got me a Pen, something I used to sign my life away.

For commissioning, my wife got a pretty cool gift. An antique brass compass in a wooden box. She had a brass plate placed in the lid with the date engraved. It is very cool, and holds deeper meaning than "congratulations."

For my winging (went thru Corpus, so it's a winging and not UPT graduation), she got me a citizen navihawk. 9 years later and I still wearing it and I still love it.

I know it's been over a month, but my wife recently got me a "congrats on getting selected present" I think was a great idea...

She got me a humidor with the official Airforce emblem on it. It costs way less than a decent watch, and is of very nice quality...i don't smoke cigars often, but it looks great on my desk and will be nice for those special occasions which calls for one. =)

From: https://www.cubancrafters.com/products.php/item_id/4910