CJM MILITARY CERTIFICATES started with a dream to make a certificate that would display much more than the Honorable Discharge and with high quality images in full color be worthy of a prominent position on the wall of our servicemen and women's homes and offices. Our founder and President, Cory J. Matthews, a WW II combat veteran went about a search to find such a certificate, and after finding none started to design it himself, and thus came into being, the one and only, CJM Military Certificates.

We are located in the heart of Arizona, in the small town of Payson, nestled in the mountains at about 5000 feet above sea level below the majestic Mogollon Rim, where we are continually 15 to 20 degrees cooler in the summer than Phoenix, 90 miles to the south of us.

Payson sits within the largest stand of Ponderosa Pine in the world. We have four mild seasons, and yes, this part of Arizona does get snow.

After graduating from college Cory honed his design skills and became a successful creator of advertising displays. In fact, recently, on a trip to northern Arizona he stopped at restaurant-tavern and was pleased to see a Miller Beer display that he had created and sold 10,000 of over 50 years ago. He had a keen eye when working with artists and knew his manufacturing techniques.

Cory loves flying and had his own airplane, so traveling long distances to see his clients was half the fun. Now, at the age of 80 he is still an active pilot, and getting there is still half the fun. After all, pilots do have that special "air" about them.

As a designer, when Cory considered the layout of his Honorable Discharge he was peeved at the looks of it, with its typewritten name and all.

He tossed ideas around in his head of what it could have been, then searched to find if someone made such a certificate. He found there were none that would display what he had in mind. So with determination of spirit Cory set out to develop a certificate that all of our veterans would be proud to display on the wall of their home or office and show off at every opportunity.

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After trying three graphic artists Corky found one who could design and develop the certificate he had in mind. Kathleen Converti, a local graphic artist and webmaster joined ranks with Corky to develop and produce the certificates in 2002. Corky took out an ad in a few military magazines, Kathleen developed the layout for those ads and people started to order.

Kathleen provides design of the certificates, all advertising including several magazine publications, brochures and website development. She fills all of the certificate orders as they come in and continues to add medals, badges, ribbons and military symbols of various kinds to her library, always expanding and improving the certificates. Kathleen is a mom of five daughters, now most of them grown, and a proud new grandma of a baby girl. You can see some samples of her work at her Computer Creations website.

From the start, we begin with high quality photos. Each image is individually cropped and enhanced to show true color. Veterans soon began to ask for medals so we kept the idea in mind, but after seeing the lousy layouts of other companies who had tried to do them we hesitated, not wanting to compromise the layout and balance of our unique design. Then, one day, we hung Two Medals. A purple heart and a bronze star. That was just the beginning.

Over time we expanded our ability to add additional text, telling of battles, battalions, ships and special experiences. We had one such story of a soldier who flew in a rescue plane delivering supplies and carrying back the body bags during the war. His plane took 40 rounds of ammunition and kept on flying. Sometimes people want to mention medals and honors they received that we are not able to show in graphic form. Some fought under a famous commander. We do all we can to tell your story on your highly personalized certificate.