10 Military Promotion Gifts Your Service Member Will Love
November 07, 2025
Military promotions are earned. Service members are required to have a certain amount of time in grade, time in service, and an attained level of skill in their military occupational specialty.
The first few ranks, regardless of how they are attained, are relatively simple to attain. Graduation from warrant officer or officer candidate school might be needed to make O-1, and graduation from basic training is usually required to be an E-2. As a service member progresses up the ranks, the requirements to earn rank get more rigid and rank is harder to attain.
That makes military promotions something special. If you are the loved one of a military service member, naturally you want to get something special to mark the occasion.
Military promotion gifts aren’t too hard to buy as long as you go into it knowing what your service member likes or doesn’t like. Clearly your military promotion gifts can be simple, like taking the person out to dinner or buying them a drink (even though military tradition stipulates that the person getting promoted buys the drinks), but if you prefer getting the person a more traditional military gift. We’ve got some ideas.
Here is USAMM’s list of military promotion gifts.
1. Patriotic T-Shirts
Want something both wearable and meaningful? Patriotic t-shirts make a solid choice for celebrating a promotion. These custom military promotion gifts can feature rank, branch, or flag motifs — patriotic shirts that honor the milestone with everyday style. Comfy, meaningful, and visible, it’s a gift that speaks loudly without saying much more.
USAMM carries an incredible line of t-shirts that are unique and can't be found at any other retailer, they are comfortable and fit just right, and above all, they are all printed in the great state of Texas. Whether you're looking to help your battle buddy make a statement, or just want them to show off some plain old service pride, USAMM's t-shirt collection is second to none.
You will not find shirts like this anywhere else.
2. Battle Mug
The Battle Mug is a military favorite. This is one of the best military promotion gifts you can buy. If the recipient belongs to an infantry unit or works in a military profession that carries a rifle, they will love this gift.
The Battle Mug is fully customizable. Not only can you put their name, new rank, and unit information on it, or anything else that you think belongs on there, but you can also add a rifle-like handle, railings, and their ribbon rack to it. This isn’t one of those military gifts that they will set aside and place on a shelf. This rugged mug will get used regularly and will be a career heirloom for whomever receives it. Your friend will likely use this thing a lot at his/her assignment and often think about the times you guys had together.
The Combat Cup is a smaller companion to the original Battle Mug for those who didn’t need the 26-ounce capacity of the original Battle Mug. The Combat Cup with M1913 Picatinny Rail System is also manufactured in the same high tech CNC facility, being precision machined from 6 pounds of solid billet aluminum into an American Made work of art. A series of processes from CNC Sawing, Multi-Axis Turning, Five-Axis Milling, skilled hand worked craftsmanship, and mil-spec Type III hard anodizing creates the ultimate compact tactical drinking device. And all Battle Mug Products are 100 percent made in America.
3. Alder Plaques
The Alder plaques are unique military promotion gifts that can capture a service members entire career or just a snapshot of it. In other words, if you have someone who was recently promoted, these are super affordable and really nice.
These are great military promotion gifts because there is plenty of room on the high-quality wood’s surface to include a career’s worth of military awards and badges, or just limit it to awards or badges earned during a specific period, like the period of time a person held a particular rank. Either way, these fully customized Alder plaques are colorful and ideal military going away gifts.
4. Navy Custom Ship 3D Laser Engraved Plaque
There are a lot of choices for military promotion gifts for sailors or old sea dogs. One of our favorite military promotion gifts are the ship 3D laser engraved plaques. They make wonderful military promotion gifts because the sailor/former sailor can select his/her ship class, name, and hull number, and it will all be custom engraved. These are great for quarters, offices or man cave or she shed.
The plaques are laser engraved on high quality American red alder. To complete your order, choose your ship class and add your ship name and hull number (or whatever text you'd like engraved). The plaque is ¾ inch thick and has a keyhole for easy wall mounting. The plaque dimensions are 12" x 9" and as usual, they are 100 percent made in America.
5. Shadowboxes
Shadowboxes will always be incredible military promotion gifts and can also be presented upon retirement from the U.S. military. This is a go-to gift which obviously can be personalized by adding the individual’s awards, badges, and mementos.
They can also be customized by having a brass plaque engraved and placed inside the box which has the recipient’s name and military information on it. To do this right, make sure you work with the service member’s family and the human resources team to ensure all the right medals, badges, ribbons, are included in the shadowbox.
6. Custom Navy Caps
Caps make great military promotion gifts because like the 3D laser plaque, they can be customized to the liking of the wearer. They can proudly display the ship of the person who was promoted and the sailors can rock these caps at veteran events and patriotic holidays. Great military promotion gifts are ones that the recipient can wear.
We have just about every ship imaginable. Can't find your class? You can send us a requests to include your ship if it isn't in our inventory or database.
Ordering is simple. Choose the U.S. Navy ship class, add the ship name, hull number and optional text on the back of the cap. Ships and text are professionally embroidered directly onto your cap at our USAMM world headquarters, smack dab in the middle of the United States in the wonderful state of Texas. Hats are made and embroidered in the USA.
7. Navy Ship Wrapped Canvas
Customizable Navy ship class wrapped canvas prints are unique gifts for military promotions because they are artwork that will bring color to any room or office. Much like their 3D engraved plaque cousins, the recipient can customize their print to any ship class and hull number. And they cost much less than the plaques, but like the plaques, they are still very affordable for a quality customized product.
Each high-quality print is professionally hand-stretched over wooden 1.5” stretcher bars and back stapled for a classic gallery look. We use archival grade, white-satin, 19 mil canvas so that your artwork will always look as good as the day you open the package.
The canvas is 12" x 16" x 1.5" and ready to hang (hardware included). And you bet, all of our high-end Navy ship wrapped canvasses are printed and wrapped in the USA.
8. Drinkware
Water bottles, mugs, flasks, and steins can all be customized and make great gifts. Name, new rank, and other personalized information can be placed on these items and consider including the unit’s emblem.
BenShot products are a staff favorite here at USAMM. These unique military promotion gifts are definitely items that will be highly regarded by the recipient. BenShot offers a wide array of choices, whether you're shooting, sipping, or slurping, we've got you covered.
And think of how cool it will be when you raise a toast to your newly promoted friend using one of these awesome works of American craftsmanship. Every drink is literally a celebration.
9. Cave Drawings
Okay, we're not talking about hieroglyphics, but USAMM has some great prints in stock for anyone's man cave, she shed, or even their office or barracks space. Everything from old style military prints, to more modern and edgy posters. We have what you need to congratulate someone for their promotion, and offer them a different way to spruce up their AO.
Got someone who is deployed? They can decorate their CHU with many of these prints.
10. Golf Balls
Imagine walking up to your golfing buddy who just got promoted and saying, "You don't have the balls!" Well, we do and you can customize them using our USwag tool and put just about anything on a golf ball.
Imagine their surprise when they see their rank on a golf ball. If you're a part of a particular unit, we can put your unit logo on a golf ball. These are great to collect, but also to use.