The beginning of the Silent Kalvory and the Saluting Cross...

Silent Kalvory and the Saluting Cross artwork are the result of over a decade of work, starting with a simple piece of metal art that grew a life of it's own. 

Beginning with a simple railroad spike forged into a cross that salutes, the Saluting Cross was given to families during the funeral of their veteran as a symbol of thanks to the veteran and the family for their sacrifice. The reaction to these little crosses was something special, the little cross seemed to speak in a way words could not.

Word spread and the demand for more of these little crosses grew.  Requests for custom versions, more intricate and dedicated to a particular veteran, with custom engraving done to show medals earned, wars served in and the military units they served in, the versions were endless.  Then requests for versions that various veteran charities and organizations wanted began to come in, customized for each of their posts and service branch.  Versions for the American Legion posts, for the Marine Corp League, other veteran organizations wanted one for their posts or meeting halls. Next came requests for memorials, from 3 foot tall versions for an individual veteran's grave site, to 18 foot tall versions for community memorial parks came in. Along with those came requests for generic versions that the various veteran's charity organizations could use as auction items in their fundraising events.  

One day while watching a special on 9/11, it occurred to me that not only do veterans deserve this salute, but First Responders deserve their own version, as does any citizen that steps towards danger to protect others, so I came up with versions in Blue for Police, Red for Firefighters, and White for the Medical responders. After watching another news story on the teachers that stepping in front of shooters to protect their students, I also designed the Citizen Hero version.

The demand finally reached the point that I could no longer keep up with the requests.  That is when friends convinced me to work up printable versions based on some of my metal artwork that could be put on t-shirts and other items. These items could be mass-produced, rather than hand-forged, which is a very labor intensive process. 

Working with other fellow veteran's we came up with Silent Kalvory, a word-play on both military Cavalry and the Calvary Cross.  A silent salute from veterans already passed on to those passing now. 

Silent Kalvory is more than t-shirts and metal art, it comes from a need within myself, as a veteran, to honor those who gave so much more than I.  I will continue to make the metal versions and design a new version for each new Memorial Day as long as I am able, because our Veteran's deserve this salute.