Fellow American Airlines Captain Tim Knutson heads up a great charity, I invited him to share a few words here. I know its late for this year, but buy a pair for next! leland

Christmas Epaulets In Memory of Captain John H. Knutson…It all started back in the early 60’s when a farm kid from Wisconsin decided to learn to fly…just to broaden his horizons.  After a short stint in the US Army, flying led to more ratings, and eventually a decision to seek an airline job.  This began in 1967 at North Central Airlines in Minneapolis, and on to Republic and Northwest.  Starting in the DC-3, moving through the CV-440, 580, all models of the DC-9 and finally the B757 as well as owning and flying several light aircraft and a warbird from his farm in Wisconsin..  John passed on the love of flying to his family before he passed at the age of 56 from cancer in 1997.  

After his passing, his wife Mary started to make Christmas Epaulets in her home out of materials that she had in her sewing closet.  I began to take them to work and sell them for $10 per pair and the money was coming in.  Mary suggested that all of the profits go to the scholarship foundation at our local high school where John had graduated from in 1959.  Sales and support continued to climb and manufacturing of the epaulets moved a couple of times until it landed with a wonderful lady and her now late husband Lois and Bob Hartman of Chetek, WI.  In recognition of John’s military service and the family’s sense of patriotism, the decision was made in 2015 to start supporting the Gary Sinise Foundation and Snowball Express with half of the profits.  The price of Epaulets was raised to $20 per pair and it’s been uphill from there.  Out of the $20 per pair, about $17 goes directly to the 2 charities of the Chetek Weyerhaeuser Scholarship Foundation and the Gary Sinise Foundation’s Snowball Express.  Every Christmas season these epaulets memorializing Captain John Knutson span the entire globe on the shoulders of every version of pilot from corporate, freight, regional, major passenger, and including many countries.  The huge thing is that to date, just over $40,000.00 has been donated to the Gary Sinise Foundation and over $72,000.00  had been given to the CWSF.  If you’d like to order your own pair of Christmas Epaulets for yourself, a loved one, or the next airline crew you meet in your travels, and want to support two great charities and honor a great human being and pilots pilot, you can do so at http://christmasepaulets.com    The order will come right here to the Knutson house and we’ll get it packed up and shipped that same day or the next morning.  So the next time you see Red Epaulets with a green stripes around Christmas time, you know the story.  Merry Christmas, Happy holidays,  Happy New Year and God’s Blessings upon all who read this!

Captain Tim Knutson