It's not easy to find a satisfactory home for an old military uniform -

When Christopher Iekel died in June at the age of 86, he left behind a loving family and a Wisconsin National Guard dress uniform. Now the former is trying to figure out what to do with the latter.

Iekel served in the Guard in the 1950s and 1960s. He and his wife, Carol, lived in Bryans Road, Md., where Chris was a civil servant and was active with the volunteer fire department.

Carol called to ask me: What should she do with his uniform? She’d contacted a few places — the National Guard, the Army — but nothing panned out. Some of the people she spoke to had suggestions — maybe a museum would like it? — but some didn’t return her call.

“It just seems like nobody really cares,” Carol said. “I can take the insignia off and put it in trash.”

But that doesn’t seem right. A military uniform — especially a dress uniform — is like a flag. There’s something sacred about it. Just throwing it away seems … wrong.

I occasionally hear from readers like Carol who are looking for advice on what to do with old uniforms. I wish I had an easy answer. I don’t. Some of the recommendations you can find online just don’t hold true. I called a few local VFWs. None take old uniforms. U.S. flags for disposal, yes, but not uniforms. A historical society might, but only if the uniform’s original owner had a strong connection to that town. A museum might, but only if that uniform fills a gap in the institution’s collection.

“We can only take and house so many,” said Debra Brookhart, curator and archivist at the American Legion National Headquarters in Indianapolis. “We want to be very careful with our resources. In our case, we have so many, we just can’t in good conscience take more.”

Thrift shops and surplus stores near military bases are happy to get donations of ACUs — the camouflage Army combat uniforms that used to be known as BDUs (battle dress uniforms). Brookhart has a co-worker, a veteran, who told her that the folks on her base depended on those thrift stores.

“They were only issued so many [uniforms],” Brookhart said. “Anything beyond what was issued, they had to pay for out of pocket.”

Every uniform tells a story, of course, especially a dress uniform, which is stitched with decorations that describe a career. Uniforms can be passed down in the family, but these days a lot of us are trying to reduce our possessions, whether they’re hardcover books, sports trophies or upright pianos.

Everyone I spoke with said if you’re going to donate a uniform to a thrift shop, you should remove all the insignia. Those are the things that have sentimental value and are a lot more easily stored than an entire uniform. They’re also the things that those with ill intent can abuse. You don’t want your uncle’s stuff used in a case of stolen valor.

Here’s another option: A company called R.Riveter turns uniforms into handbags.

Cameron Cruse and Lisa Bradley founded the company in 2011 after moving to a remote corner of Georgia when their husbands were assigned to teach at an Army Ranger school. Job opportunities there were slim. They enlisted other military spouses across the country to make various components for their line of bags as a way of earning remote income.

They repurpose uniforms in their Heirloom Collection.

“Everybody has materials sitting in closets or attics or, in the modern military family, stashed in the garage,” Cruse said. “There’s so much history and memories wrapped up in them.”

You can go to the web site — www.rriveter.com — and fill out a form describing what you have and what you’d like. (Options range from a zipper pouch for $75 to a large messenger bag for $275.) R.Riveter sends a kit to put the uniform in. You mail it back to Southern Pines, N.C., for fabrication.

“We take something that really didn’t have any life left in it and give it a new life,” Cruse said. (She added that her company periodically brings out bags using recycled military materials. Contact them if you’re interested in donating.)

Brookhart at the American Legion spoke not long ago with a woman trying to figure out what to do with her grandfather’s uniform.

“I gave her some options,” Brookhart said. “Her conclusion was she was going to put it in a box and bury it in her backyard. It’s just really hard to find a good home for these things.”

Have you successfully found a home for a relative’s military uniform? Are you connected with an organization that desires military uniforms? Drop me a line — john.kelly@washpost.com — and I’ll share the information with readers.

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