Supporting Our Troops


Being proud of our country and the men and women who work to defend it and the freedom it represents, Pyrotechnic Innovations has helped to make 4th of July a memorable day for our troops overseas on multiple occasions.

In the last week of June 2005, Mike Tockstein was contacted by a military officer in Sadr City, Iraq through the Pyro Innovations website. The officer was looking for a fireworks video to play for the troops in Iraq, since real fireworks were not an option. The streaming fireworks videos that were available for download on our website at the time were not sufficient length or resolution to project on the giant screen they planned on using. Mailing a DVD to Iraq in a few days was not possible. So after Mike quickly filmed and edited a "thank you" note to the troops, he uploaded a full length, high resolution video with the thank you note at the beginning to a directory on the Pyro Innovations server that the officer could access. The video contained footage from one of our previous 20 minute 4th of July fireworks displays, fully choreographed to patriotic music. In the days leading up to the 4th of July, the troop fireworks video was mentioned on CNN. It was also written about in two printed news publications. Mike was humbled after receiving a letter and challenge coin from the military in the subsequent weeks for his support of our troops overseas. You can read the letter here.

A few years later we produced a similar video, this time for the troops at sea with an updated "thank you" note added to the beginning. It was given to a sailor who was serving on the USS Nimitz.


USS NimitzA first hand account of what happened on the USS Nimitz by one of its sailors:

A request was made to present the fireworks video Pyrotechnic Innovations made for the upcoming 4th of July holiday, which would be spent deployed at sea. Not only did the commanding officer say yes to the video, he also sent it to the rest of the fleet!  It turns out that it was sent to 4 other ships and 2 land bases operating in county in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

4th of July came to us with a no fly day and a long list of activities for the crew to unwind and relax with. The day was amazing.

A HUGE video screen was brought up on deck and set up near the island of the ship.  Once night fall came, the crew was asked to come up on deck to see the “Dedication to our Heroes” presentation.

The video started to play and the crew of over 5000 went wild! There was a mix of cheers of joy and tears of honor as the fireworks soundtrack played. Then, just as the finale started to play on the video, the uproar of .50 caliber shots rang out as the skipper added his own finale.

Over 5000 crew on this ship, as well as thousands of other men and women of the US Military, got a small taste of home that night. The response was overwhelming with many smiles and a feeling of joy.

USS Nimitz       Nimitz       USS Nimitz

Thanks to our Troops for Fighting to Preserve our Way of Life!
God Bless America!
Be sure to check out our Fireworks Videos!