A Vietnam Veteran Builds a Banjo in Tribute to the Marine Corps

Guideposts Video: Inspiring True Stories

Hello Guideposts. My name is Don Embrey. I’m down here in beautiful Ladysmith, Virginia.

When I graduated from high school, I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps during the height of the Vietnam War.

I got an idea in my head about building a Marine Corps banjo. I’m proud to be a Marine. Once a Marine, always a Marine.
Working with wood, being a contractor all these years, I was familiar with a lot of the woodworking process of it, but there’s an awful lot to building a banjo that I didn’t know.

I did a lot of research and a lot of studying online. So that’s what I did. I built my first banjo and it turned out, I think, I think it turned out pretty neat.