The Winner is Nevadblue(Ken), I know him from several different Gun related Forums. He is a creative builder and a practicing engraver(Lindsay Palmcontrol IIRC). Just as a quick example of his creativeness...I believe it was last year or maybe the year before(he can correct me if I get this wrong) he was in Nicaragua with his job, and in his spare time with little more than hand tools and scraps put together a nifty little single shot pistol.

As stated in the original post my wife made the choice of winner and she didn't have the inside information on any of the builders who submitted entries, so her decision was based solely on what she read. Here's what he submitted:

I know a little of the back story of what happened to his son from when it happened and Nevadblue posted some of it on one of the forums, so I'll try to give the brief version.

His son was deployed to one of our current conflicts(can't remember if it was Iraq or Afghanistan), but he wasn't there long, the inoculations that the military gives our deploying troops can have some serious side effects, and Mike had a very bad reaction to the Anthrax inoculation, IIRC. He was shipped home, but the damage was already done, the VA doctors and the VA in general was nearly useless as far as the way they treated him and Ken's family. Due to this Mike is permanently disabled. That's the short version, at the time as Ken posted updates and the trials they went through with the VA and trying to get proper treatment, I remember thinking how horrible our Gov't treats our returning Veterans, it was very hard on their whole family.

Like I said, my wife didn't know their story, but I am glad she chose Ken, and ultimately Mike to get this Lockplate, it's an honor to give this to a Veteran.

Colin