Our Story
Accidental Co-Founder/Dad/Army Veteran Jeff Grosso: ‘People can show off their college, their
team, their hobbies, but no one makes a subdued car emblem to display how you served your
country in the military?!’
Accidental Co-Founder/Son/High School Student Jackson Grosso: ‘I can design and make you
one on my 3D Printer.’
Jeff: ‘Show me.’
Jackson: ‘Done’ - 3 iterations later, he shows off the finished US Army Armor Branch Insignia
and we put it on my tailgate.
Jeff: ‘I showed my old tank friends and they want one too. I bet you we could sell these.’
Jackson: ‘OK, can this be my job that you are pressing me to get?’
Jeff: ‘Done.’
The last piece of the puzzle was about having this business make a positive impact to our
service members and veteran customers and add some real purpose to the business. This one
was a tragically easy decision - Jeff’s 1993 West Point class has experienced an abnormally
high number of deaths by suicide in the 30+ years since graduation. Jeff asked his high school
daughter Sydney who wants to go into Psychology/Counseling to research organizations that
help prevent Service Member & Veteran Suicide and after much research she ultimately chose ‘Stop Soldier Suicide’ as our partner organization after meeting with them. ‘Stop Solider Suicide’ will receive 10% ($1) of every military auto emblem we sell. You can learn more about this very
impactful organization here: https://stopsoldiersuicide.org/.
So, Military Auto Emblems LLC is a genuine veteran-family business with Mom/Wife Joy and
Daughters/Sisters Sydney & Ava tackling shipping/logistics while Jeff and Jackson run the
business and handle production. We are starting off this summer with US Army Branch
Insignia. If it goes well, we will be expanding our product line to include each of the other US
Armed Forces branches as well – don’t be shy to tell us what you want to see next. We hope
you like our products!
About Us
The Grosso family has lived in Austin, TX for the past 20+ years. Jeff and Joy have been
married for over two decades and have 3 high school teenagers – twins Sydney and Ava and
then 15 months younger Jackson.
Jeff graduated from West Point in 1993 as an Armor Officer. He and Joy met in 1996 while Jeff
was stationed at then Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos) in Killeen, Texas. Jeff was a Lieutenant in
3/8 Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division – M1A2’s. Just a few months after meeting, Joy got the first
introduction to Army life as Jeff’s battalion was deployed to Kuwait to ‘deter Iraqi aggression’ for
several months. Luckily, it worked and the aggression was avoided. Jeff and Joy continued to
date while Joy finished college at the University of Texas in Austin and Jeff completed several
Army schools and ultimately got stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado and assigned to 1-68 Armor
Battalion, 4th Infantry Division – M1A1’s. Jeff served as the S3-Air Planning Officer and then
took over as Commander of C Co (Cold Steel), 1-68 Armor. Joy picked up all the duties as the
Commander’s Fiancé - best jobs they ever had. Having completed command, Jeff and Joy
decided to get out of the Army in April 2000 and, of course, get married.
NOTE: Jeff was ultimately very fortunate to have served 7 years in the Army during a period of
relative peace. Of course, many of his friends weren’t as fortunate. He and his family are
incredibly grateful for the sacrifices of those friends and their families. This business,
particularly the veteran support aspect, is a very small way to pay back that debt of gratitude.
Jeff went on to become a Semiconductor Industry Executive and Joy became a Teacher and
almost immediately a Mother to 3 little ones.
Our Co-Founder Jackson will soon be a crazy smart junior in high school where he enjoys
graphic design and animation courses in particular. Jackson is a member of the cross country
and track teams as well.
Sydney and Ava are equally crazy smart soccer players and are now entering their senior year
in high school. Sydney is applying to colleges to study psychology and Ava will be attending
the University of Texas El Paso to continue playing soccer and study to become a teacher.
Dogs Scout (he’s Cav from way back) and Charlie (Jeff commanded C Company) round out the
family.