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Your Family's Military Stories (1 Viewer)

ChiefD

ChiefD

Footballguy
Got to thinking about my Grandpa tonight, who was a captain in the Navy and a pilot. He was piloting one of the torpedo bombers responsible for sinking the Yamato battleship, which effectively ended WWII. Anyway, he was my hero, and was thinking about these two stories tonight:

1. He passed away several years ago. At this funeral, people came from far and wide to mourn him and celebrate his life. There was one veteran, a man in his late 80's or early 90's. He had traveled from the east coast to farm country in western Illinois to pay his respects. This man went to as many people as he could, describing how he felt about my grandfather. As I recall, my grandfather was a squadron leader, and was notorious for bringing "his boys" home safely from all the missions he flew.

This man said, over and over: "I owe my life to Jack. He brought me home on a day where I knew we were going down. I will never forget him." He was on the verge of tears all day, because that man was HIS hero. And ours of course.

2. My grandmother raised 4 kids basically on her own. So she moved constantly to wherever the Navy stationed my grandfather. Back in WWII, they lived in base housing, so of course it was an every day occurrence that the Navy car would come into the neighborhood to deliver the terrible news to one of the wives and children waiting for their soldier.

My grandmother organized a group of moms at each base, and she told the Navy that if you had those letters to deliver, bring them to me so we (her and the other moms) could deliver the news. That way the women who lost their husbands wouldn't have to see that car driving in their neighborhood. That way these women could deliver the news as only a support group could. She described to me a lot - A LOT -  of hard days during that time. But her crew delivered the news with support and compassion.

 
My father was in the Marine Corps, and I learned almost all of this after his death.  He served in a counter espionage role while in New Zealand during the Cold War and served as a military advisor in Vietnam fighting and training before open hostilities began.  I can only imagine the stories he could have told, but he died when I was 15 from his time at Camp Lejeune where he served as a drill instructor prior to going overseas.  He died from about 4 different horrible body destroying diseases.  I watched a healthy and vibrant man crumble and disintegrate over about 3 years time.  Apparently the government is allowing vets to apply for disability now, but does not look like they care too much about those that have died. :(

 
Mad Cow said:
My father was in the Marine Corps, and I learned almost all of this after his death.  He served in a counter espionage role while in New Zealand during the Cold War and served as a military advisor in Vietnam fighting and training before open hostilities began.  I can only imagine the stories he could have told, but he died when I was 15 from his time at Camp Lejeune where he served as a drill instructor prior to going overseas.  He died from about 4 different horrible body destroying diseases.  I watched a healthy and vibrant man crumble and disintegrate over about 3 years time.  Apparently the government is allowing vets to apply for disability now, but does not look like they care too much about those that have died. :(
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Wow. never heard about that.  Thanks for sharing.

 
Great Grandfather (paternal) USMC during Spanish-American War

Grandfather (Paternal) USN Minesweeper during WWII, served in Pacific at Midway

Grandmother (Paternal) USCG during WWII

Father was USN cryptologist during Vietnam intercepting Chinese message traffic, three uncles in Vietnam, one a fighter pilot and another a riverboat gunner.

Me, OEF and OIF combat vet who was involved in some ground floor drone stuff and stuff

 
Mad Cow said:
 I watched a healthy and vibrant man crumble and disintegrate over about 3 years time.  Apparently the government is allowing vets to apply for disability now, but does not look like they care too much about those that have died. :(
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He could have applied, but VA was a complete disaster pre-GW Bush.  That's a shame, I know a lot of vets who have suffered due to complications from military service.  Exposure, lifestyle, post-traumatic, etc.  This is why a lot of us flock to our fellow brothers in arms, most people just don't understand most of it. 

 
Mad Cow said:
My father was in the Marine Corps, and I learned almost all of this after his death.  He served in a counter espionage role while in New Zealand during the Cold War and served as a military advisor in Vietnam fighting and training before open hostilities began.  I can only imagine the stories he could have told, but he died when I was 15 from his time at Camp Lejeune where he served as a drill instructor prior to going overseas.  He died from about 4 different horrible body destroying diseases.  I watched a healthy and vibrant man crumble and disintegrate over about 3 years time.  Apparently the government is allowing vets to apply for disability now, but does not look like they care too much about those that have died. :(
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It breaks my heart to hear of the people, and their families, who gave so much  for this country get treated in such a disrespectful, dismissive way. I’m sorry for your loss, and I’m sorry that anyone would have to suffer through that. 

 
Great thread! 

Not much of a story as far as heroics but I enjoyed hearing this from my uncles.

I had five uncles from both sides of my family that served during WWII. Two of my uncles (brothers) served in the army. I really don’t know divisions, etc. They were “over there” for over two years.  When they got back and everything was over, they were talking to each other about where they had been and when. They discovered that they were on the same base overseas at the same time for two or three weeks without knowing it. They said it wasn’t a large base and they were surprised they never crossed paths and figured there had to have been some moment(s) where they were feet from each other. They also new several of the same people but never ran into each other. 

My Grandfather served in WWI and he drove a wagon pulled by mules. 

 
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I know my Grandfather was some type of driver/mechanic or something in WWII. He used to say how he was one of the only ones able to drive some truck or something.

The only thing I know about him in the War was he had beach cleanup duty for Normandy.

I never asked if that was bodies/ammo/vehicles/whatever....  He didn't really like to talk much about it

 
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My dad was in the navy in Vietnam, never got off the ship except for shore time and did two whores at once. He sent back a picture of him and some scantily-clad girls to his brother with a note on the back saying “war is hell”. 

Thank you for your service dad. 

 
Both of my grandparents served in WWII. My grandfather on my father's side, who emigrated to this country as a young child, fought in North Africa and Italy. He kept his messenger bag with his name and location and bequeathed it to me a few years before his death 5 years ago. I named my son after him; we take his picture with it every year on Veteran's Day and I plan to give it to him when he's old enough to care for it. I've been looking forward to that day since before he was born.

Last year some people marched through the streets of an American city wearing the insignia of the troops my grandparents fought against and chanting in support of kicking my family and the rest of my grandparents' descendants out of the country. The President called them "very fine people" and half the population of the country they fought for seems to be OK with this.

I know this isn't the political forum but I don't care, it needs to be said every god#### day.

 
Doctor Detroit said:
He could have applied, but VA was a complete disaster pre-GW Bush.  That's a shame, I know a lot of vets who have suffered due to complications from military service.  Exposure, lifestyle, post-traumatic, etc.  This is why a lot of us flock to our fellow brothers in arms, most people just don't understand most of it. 
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The hard part is this all came to light only not many years ago.  He died in 1987, so we assumed it was just really terrible luck to have so many things cascade at once.  It brings a certain amount of peace having and answer,  but some disquiet as well.  All of that said,  my mom isn't asking for any kind of reparations and she endured so much more. I'm not about to do it either.   Just sad, as has been said, that it was done and then covered up for so long. 

 
Mad Cow said:
My father was in the Marine Corps, and I learned almost all of this after his death.  He served in a counter espionage role while in New Zealand during the Cold War and served as a military advisor in Vietnam fighting and training before open hostilities began.  I can only imagine the stories he could have told, but he died when I was 15 from his time at Camp Lejeune where he served as a drill instructor prior to going overseas.  He died from about 4 different horrible body destroying diseases.  I watched a healthy and vibrant man crumble and disintegrate over about 3 years time.  Apparently the government is allowing vets to apply for disability now, but does not look like they care too much about those that have died. :(
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Damn. Sorry to hear about that. 

 
We have dead in France, Holland, North Africa and Iwo Jima.  We have wounded in Korea and if I include cousins we have dead in Viet Nam.  We also have survivors.  The most interesting story is my maternal grandfather who was in the Kaiser's army in WWI and literally in an engagement against my paternal grandfather, among thousands of others.  After the war he left Germany, came here, and in WWII was a commissioned officer here working in a code unit.  He met several of the folks working on the enigma machine project and after the war did very well investing in those contacts, buying I.B.M. Xerox, and I.T.&T.

My paternal Grandfather who fought in WWI came home to Wisconsin and ran his farm and the farms of the brothers lost in WWI.  He ran a Dairy farm I still own and lease out.  He also ran a feed lot for steers on the way from North Dakota to the slaughtering houses in Chicago. We were situated just off of a rail spur just east of Beloit and north of Rockford.  In WWII he received a government contract to supply milk and beef to Fort McCoy which housed tens of thousands of German POW's, the War Department reasoning that Germans should go into an area with lots of Germans, and so Wisconsin.  Many of those POWs came to live in Wisconsin after the war.

 
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My grandfather, Archibald Dominick Kasulke was an engineer in the Pacific. He served with the Americal 57th Combat Engineer Battalion and was on Guadalcanal early, (8/42) building bridges, clearing roads and saw heavy action. Later he was on Leyte, Bougainville and eventually occupied Figi.

He would rarely talk about the war. As a teen I tried to ask him about the war but didn’t know the right way to ask him. I should have asked if he had any friends and how about the good time/non war things he witnessed. Like an idiot I just asked things like, “What was the war like?” and the most I got out of him was him tearing up and mumbling “All those damn kids, the ocean was red with blood”. One time he did mention why he smoked cigars. My grandfather was a lot older than most of the kids in the war, 29 when he enlisted, and all the younger troops wanted cigarettes and nothing to with the cigars so they were plentiful. His captain and him shared all the cigars and he smoked at least one a day unti the last weeks of his life. 

I have a lot of pictures and about 50-60 letters from him written to my grandmother. Lol, nearly all of them mention rumors of or attempts to find beer. On a few occasions he succeeded, one time after his regiment or unit won a shooting contest. I’m still in the process of photocopying them so I don't have to open them up anymore/keep them in good shape. I also have a set of playing cards with the phrase “all the way to Figi and back” and still have all (heavily worn) 52 cards.

Ive mentioned his before but my grandfather was everything to me. I’ve never even seen a picture of my biological father and my mom worked two jobs when I was young so “Pop” was my dad growing up and I did everything and went everywhere with him. I have worn his dog tags everyday since his passing and I will die with them on. 

RIP Pop, I love and miss you dearly. 

 
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My grandfather passed away a couple years ago. We found a lot of stuff after he passed. I shared the Japanese flag we found here on FBG a while back.

This was the letter that accompanied his bronze star: LINK

He seldom talked about his time in the service, and when he did it was fascinating. RIP Grumpa.

 
So your Gramps disregarded enemy fire and ran through a hail of fire to rescue wounded.  The man was a hero.  Sounds like he was instrumental in saving six other fellas who may have lived, because of him, to be some other kids Grandfathers.  Very Nice.

 
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My great uncle stormed the beach at Normandy. He stated it was a blur, and you survived by being lucky. That's it - guys left and right dropping, and you just hoped you'd make it to the next piece of cover. But he really never talked specifics. Like most folks there, he lost good friends, and wondered "why not me?" He met an English girl on leave, and they were married 50 years. He came home and opened a corner grocery in NYC, and basically lived what you would call a classically successful American life. He's still with us (95 or so). I last saw him a year ago.   

My late stepfather was in Vietnam. Foot soldier/grunt/jungle patrol. He never talked about it much, except to say how terrifying it was to know that any second, anywhere, you could die, and that it was sometimes nearly impossible to distinguish friend from foe. Even to his last day, you could not wake him up suddenly, and he'd always retreat indoors when it was time for fireworks.

Thank you for your service.

 
jwb said:
My great uncle stormed the beach at Normandy. He stated it was a blur, and you survived by being lucky. That's it - guys left and right dropping, and you just hoped you'd make it to the next piece of cover. But he really never talked specifics. Like most folks there, he lost good friends, and wondered "why not me?" He met an English girl on leave, and they were married 50 years. He came home and opened a corner grocery in NYC, and basically lived what you would call a classically successful American life. He's still with us (95 or so). I last saw him a year ago.   

My late stepfather was in Vietnam. Foot soldier/grunt/jungle patrol. He never talked about it much, except to say how terrifying it was to know that any second, anywhere, you could die, and that it was sometimes nearly impossible to distinguish friend from foe. Even to his last day, you could not wake him up suddenly, and he'd always retreat indoors when it was time for fireworks.

Thank you for your service.
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I would stop everything you’re doing and go visit him immediately. I’d give almost anything to talk with my grandfather again. 

 
Growing up we had a neighbor for whom I would do chores, cut the grass, dog sit, baby sit.  A regular guy, a business man with a fishing boat.  Just a neighbor.  He had a few pictures in his home of WWII fighter planes.  It was only after he died that I found out he flew those planes and was an Ace over Europe.

I had a buddy growing up. his father owned a bar and a liquor store, the biggest in Milwaukee at the time.  My buddy was helpless, a spoiled kid who never did any chores and was never taught to do so.  His father liked having me around as I taught my buddy the skills I had long since learned being a farm kid.  I never saw my buddy's dad do anything other than nap or sit on his porch with a Gin and Tonic and watch the world go bye.  He was, to my mind as soft a man as ever there could be.  Turns out I was wrong, he was just enjoying the fruits of a hard life.   That man who I judged as soft had fought in the Battle of the Bulge.  He was wounded and his squad captured.  Being Jewish he did not receive good treatment from the Nazis.  He was marched, wounded and unattended through a harsh winter, suffering beatings on the forced march, to the Bad Orb Prison Camp where he remained until liberated.  I guess after that experience he did not have much use for the out of doors or for vigorous physical activity.

These men are long gone now, their stories slowly being forgotten.  They kept the world free so that I could use my freedom to argue with dolts and scholars alike on the internet.

 
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My dad was drafted in the army after medical school and was a surgeon (first a captain, then promoted to major) in Vietnam.  He worked in a MUST (Medical Unit Self-Contained Transportable), which is a more mobile form of a MASH unit that most people are familiar with because of the TV show.  He saved lots of lives performing emergency surgery very close to the battlefield.  He told me several stories of their camp being attacked and bullets flying by him.  In one attack, he was in his tent and a bullet struck the tent post an inch above his head.  He pried the bullet from the wooden post and saved it as a reminder of how close he came to dying that day.  One of his lighthearted stores was of some downtime at the camp when he and his buddy (helicopter pilot) got drunk and decided go for a helicopter ride.  They just got up in the air when the pilot told my dad he was going to puke and had to lie down, leaving my dad (who didn't know much about flying) to land. 

 
My father is a Korean War veteran.  He was a drill Sargent at some point and was shot early in his time there and spent a lot of his remaining time in Japan being a radio jockey and driving around USO folks.  Got to meet Bob Hope.  Still #####es about McArthur and the 38th parallel.  "We'd a won that damn war if it weren't for him!" I think my favorite story of his service was when he got home.  He went to he BMV to get a license (never had one) and they told him to raise his hand and say "I drove in the Military".  He did so and was given a drivers license.  Even though he had never actually drove a vehicle.  Only rode in them.  We of course used this to harass him for his horrible driving.  Most people as they get older, slow down when driving due to their reaction time.  Not him, he just sped up.  None of us six kids of his were allowed to sleep in.  EVER.  "GET UP!  YOU ARE WASTING THE DAY AWAY!!!!!".... "Um Dad, it's 7 am..."  "GET UP!!!!"  :lmao:  

My wife's grandfather was by far one of the most awesome people I ever got to meet in my life.  Served in both the Navy and Army.  He always had great stories.  Wish I had an opportunity to hear more from him before he passed. 

My son is National Guard and is a Tanker.  Drives M1A1 Abrams. 

My future son in law is also National Guard.  A combat engineer.  Served a tour in Afghanistan.  Had a vehicle with buddies in it hit an IED in front of his.  Saw some other stuff over there that he has had to deal with.  Great guy, but that stuff kind of got to him.  He doesn't like to talk about it, but in the few times he gave me details, my heart just went out to all of those guys over there. 

 
Great thread guys :thumbup:

There's been a few threads in the past that touched on some of these stories. I have a few but nothing in front of me to write about. Hoping @BroncoFreak_2K3 see's this and weighs in. He's done some extensive research on his Uncle? that was a paratrooper in WWII.

 
timschochet said:
Awesome thread. 

My great uncle survived the Bataan Death March. I only met him once as a young child so I don’t know the details. I’m told he didn’t talk too much about it. 
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My Grandfather survived the Bataan Death March.  Said if he made it out of there he was going to eat a whole stick of butter when he got home.  He survived a lot of torture and had to be on oxygen tanks about half the day, but he still smoked. 

It's crazy to think how many guys didn't make it out of that. 

 
Awesome thread.  I'd love to meet every single one of your family members from these stories.  It's one of the fun parts of one of my clinics I run that I get to talk to a lot of vets.

My stories aren't that grand, unfortunately.  My father served in the Air Force "during" Vietnam, but was never ordered overseas and was stationed out west for his entire service time.  His father was a radio operator for the U.S. Army in World War II and was stationed in France after the invasion.  For reasons that include, but are not limited to that, he is the greatest person I have ever known and I miss him terribly every day and have in the 25 years since I got the call at midnight on Thanksgiving that he died.  In as much as I want to hear God say, welcome home my faithful servant, when I pass, I so much more want to see him again.  But, in time of humor, we called him Radar.  That's who he was.  He was Radar from M.A.S.H.

My wife's grandfather was one of the first on the beach at the invasion in France.  He came home a broken man suffering the ghosts and trauma that only those men know.  He raised a family but all of them will tell you that he was never "all there" with them.  He was always at least partially somewhere else.  He only talked about his service once while I knew him and he had to stop and walked away.  In many ways he died on that beach.  

 
Dad was on an Air force base in Vietnam. He only tells a few stories of things like poker games and the mamasan he hooked up with. My aunt tells me there are a bunch more stories that he just won't tell, but one of them he has told me was how he was walking toward the barber shop one day to get his hair cut and the place was surrounded by MP's. They dragged the barber out in cuffs who was Vietnamese. The barber had cut my dad's hair a bunch of times while he was stationed there. Turns out the guy was a VC colonel. That day he decided to slit the throats of every GI that came in for a trim. There was a stack of dead soldiers piled up in the backroom. It wasn't until enough of them were missing that they traced it back to the barber. Had they not figured that out for another 20 minutes, my dad (or myself) wouldn't be here. 

It's not an act of valor or bravery, just a story of how close he came to dying because war is indeed, hell. 

 
TheFanatic said:
Dad was on an Air force base in Vietnam. He only tells a few stories of things like poker games and the mamasan he hooked up with. My aunt tells me there are a bunch more stories that he just won't tell, but one of them he has told me was how he was walking toward the barber shop one day to get his hair cut and the place was surrounded by MP's. They dragged the barber out in cuffs who was Vietnamese. The barber had cut my dad's hair a bunch of times while he was stationed there. Turns out the guy was a VC colonel. That day he decided to slit the throats of every GI that came in for a trim. There was a stack of dead soldiers piled up in the backroom. It wasn't until enough of them were missing that they traced it back to the barber. Had they not figured that out for another 20 minutes, my dad (or myself) wouldn't be here. 

It's not an act of valor or bravery, just a story of how close he came to dying because war is indeed, hell. 
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:jawdrop:

 
My dad served in Veitnam, was a clerk.  Hated his time there and will talk very little about it.  The only thing I really got out of experience is his feelings that being able to type x amount of words per minute, allowing him to become a clerk, saved his life.  He was militaristic (pun intented) about me and my siblings learning how to type.  The only other memory I have is whenever we did yard work when I was a kid, he would wear his green army fatigue pants.  They must have lasted him 20 years after getting out of the service.

His dad was a WWII veteran, but I know nothing of his story either.  As my dad wasn't proud of his service, he didn't talk about his or his dads experiences.  He didn't have a good relationship with his dad as a kid (I'm not talking in the touchy feely way, I'm talking in the my grandparents were raving alcoholics and my dad pretty much raised himself and his brother).  The only story I know of my grandfather is that he met my grandmother, who was a nurse in the British army, after he was injured.  I have no idea what he did or where he was when he got injured. 

 
Walking Boot said:
I had grandparents on both sides of WWII, technically. My mother's father was conscripted into the Italian army under Mussolini. He was working in Ethiopia, which Italy claimed control over in the 1930s leading up to the war. At some point, they found out that the British army was closing in on his position. He and some of his close friends were assigned the night patrol one night, and decided that getting killed for Mussolini wasn't in their best interests, so, they defected. They left their posts and sought out the British and surrendered to them. He spent six years as an Allied POW, learned English, and after the war was given the opportunity to leave Italy and settle in the US.

My father's father was part of the support for Patton's army. I think he mainly taught typing to officers and did logistical support. He did earn a Bronze Star, though, in the action he did see. The unit was moving through Germany late in the war, and the Nazis had blocked one of the mountain roads with some busted trucks and boulders and whatever they had. The army trucks were stuck, and the Germans ambushed them, firing from higher up on the mountain. My grandfather was ordered to assemble a "Bangalore Torpedo", basically a bunch of dynamite at the end of a pipe, and then he could add more sections and push the pipe out farther and farther until he got it to the roadblock, and blew it up, and the trucks were able to move out to safety. 

There is a scene very similar in Band of Brothers, but without the Germans firing on them, I think. So I do get that thought of him every time I watch.
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I remember that. Tom Hanks at the base of the piled sand at the back of the beach, calling for Bangalores.

 
timschochet said:
I believe it’s called that because less than one man in ten survived. Based on what I have read about it, I certainly would not have been one of them. 
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I read a haunting account of the event by a survivor, probably 30 years ago or more. I wish I could recall the title and the author, it was outstanding.

 
TheFanatic said:
Dad was on an Air force base in Vietnam. He only tells a few stories of things like poker games and the mamasan he hooked up with. My aunt tells me there are a bunch more stories that he just won't tell, but one of them he has told me was how he was walking toward the barber shop one day to get his hair cut and the place was surrounded by MP's. They dragged the barber out in cuffs who was Vietnamese. The barber had cut my dad's hair a bunch of times while he was stationed there. Turns out the guy was a VC colonel. That day he decided to slit the throats of every GI that came in for a trim. There was a stack of dead soldiers piled up in the backroom. It wasn't until enough of them were missing that they traced it back to the barber. Had they not figured that out for another 20 minutes, my dad (or myself) wouldn't be here. 

It's not an act of valor or bravery, just a story of how close he came to dying because war is indeed, hell. 
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Whoa. 

 
TheFanatic said:
Dad was on an Air force base in Vietnam. He only tells a few stories of things like poker games and the mamasan he hooked up with. My aunt tells me there are a bunch more stories that he just won't tell, but one of them he has told me was how he was walking toward the barber shop one day to get his hair cut and the place was surrounded by MP's. They dragged the barber out in cuffs who was Vietnamese. The barber had cut my dad's hair a bunch of times while he was stationed there. Turns out the guy was a VC colonel. That day he decided to slit the throats of every GI that came in for a trim. There was a stack of dead soldiers piled up in the backroom. It wasn't until enough of them were missing that they traced it back to the barber. Had they not figured that out for another 20 minutes, my dad (or myself) wouldn't be here. 

It's not an act of valor or bravery, just a story of how close he came to dying because war is indeed, hell. 
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wow

Great thread! Thanks to all for sharing.

 
I know that my one Great Grandfather was in the Austro-Hungarian Army prior to him coming to America.  My mom has a picture of him and his brother in uniform.  I also have a picture of his WWI draft card.

For WW2, My dad's dad was in the Navy, his brother, my great uncle Frank was in the Army Air Corps.  On my Mom's side, my Grandpap was a coal miner and farmer so he and i believe his brothers were deferred as they were helping the war cause by doing their work here.  my Grandmother had 4 brother's serve.  3 in the Army and one as a Merchant Marine. My Uncle John never went overseas but never talked about what he did.  We believe he was a guard at a POW camp here in the states.  My uncle Steve, i believe served in Patton's army and helped liberate a concentration camp, i just don't know which one.  My Uncle Paul served in Europe, and i believe was on his way to the Pacific when the war ended.

I know 2 of my great uncle's by marriage were also in WW2, there may be more but i'd have to sit down and probably ask.

My Great Uncle Frank, after WW2, stayed in and became an Air Force sergeant and retired in the earlier 60s.  He is 95 and for the most part, still in great shape and still puts on his uniform for events.

My mom's brother (another) uncle Paul, was a Marine in Vietnam.  Two 2nd cousins, I think are considered Vietnam Vets as they were 'in theater' but never in Vietnam.  One was in Thailand and the other in Okinawa.  I had 2 other cousin's serve in Iraq and/or Afghanistan.

My father in law was in the Navy during Vietnam but never left the states.  My wife's cousin's stepson went to the Persion Gulf, I think he was in UAE or Kuwait but may have went to Iraq.

 
Ditkaless Wonders said:
timschochet said:
I believe it’s called that because less than one man in ten survived. Based on what I have read about it, I certainly would not have been one of them. 
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I read a haunting account of the event by a survivor, probably 30 years ago or more. I wish I could recall the title and the author, it was outstanding.
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Ghost Soldiers?  I was just going to recommend anyone interested in the BDM read it.

https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Soldiers-Account-Greatest-Mission/dp/038549565X

 
my dad was in the Air Force. I don't know if he ever saw combat because he never mentioned it, but I know he was kind of a bad###...he went to ranger school, was an MP, and was the boxing champ of his base. during his travels all over the world, he had accumulated some cool memorabilia, like old weapons and things like that, that he kept in a trunk. before he was scheduled to come home from Spain for the last time, he had the trunk shipped to my aunt, and somewhere in the transition, it was lost forever. I know that bummed him out a lot.

some of the things he did during those years caught up with him, and he passed away about 5 years ago. but his time in the military meant a lot to him, and he is now resting with his fellow warriors at the VA in Dayton, Ohio. rest in peace, pop.

 
Maik Jeaunz said:
my dad was in the Air Force. I don't know if he ever saw combat because he never mentioned it, but I know he was kind of a bad###...he went to ranger school, was an MP, and was the boxing champ of his base. during his travels all over the world, he had accumulated some cool memorabilia, like old weapons and things like that, that he kept in a trunk. before he was scheduled to come home from Spain for the last time, he had the trunk shipped to my aunt, and somewhere in the transition, it was lost forever. I know that bummed him out a lot.

some of the things he did during those years caught up with him, and he passed away about 5 years ago. but his time in the military meant a lot to him, and he is now resting with his fellow warriors at the VA in Dayton, Ohio. rest in peace, pop.
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This jogged a memory. My grandfather was also a boxer while in the service. He said he beat everyone except for this one black guy. He said the black guy kicked his ### all over the ring and he just couldn’t believe it. 

 
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Grandfather on my dad's side was too old to get drafted for WWII.

Grandfather on my mom's side was like 18-19 and went to Italy on the front lines (Army).  Before he passed, I was too young - and too far away, as he lived in Chicago and I was in SoCal - to really get into conversation about what he did.  But I know he took out plenty of Nazi soldiers and at least one who was of high rank, as I have the Iron Cross that only officers wore, apparently.

To think about being just out of high school and going across the world to shoot at people in hostile territory just boggles the mind, at least for me.

 
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nirad3 said:
To think about being just out of high school and going across the world to shoot at people in hostile territory just boggles the mind, at least for me.
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Yeah. I remember talking to my grandfather the summer before he died. He would say this once in awhile, but damn it darn near made me cry every time he said it:

"I sure hope God can forgive me and let me into heaven when I go to meet him. I was only doing my job." 

 
I don't have any cool stories to tell - but this thread did remind me of something else:  One of the most under-appreciated groups in America are military dependents.  Families that move every 2 years or so, all across the country, no questions asked. 

Those are sacrifices that go unnoticed when we think of the men and women who serve our country.

 
Maternal grandfather was a staff sergeant/top turret gunner in WWII in B-26 Marauders. Said they crashlanded a couple of times but never really talked much about the war.

Paternal grandfather passed before I was born, but was in the Marines in WWII. My dad tells me apparently because he could read and write, they made him a clerk and he sat on some Pacific island and never saw combat.

Father-in-law was an MP in Vietnam, assigned to security for some general or major base. Said the base got shelled or something once, but otherwise he had to way easier than most.

Think one  of my wife’s grandfathers was in an engineering unit in WWII.

That’s about all I know except I think one of my great-grandfathers (owned a butcher shop) was an army cook around WWI. I have his cookbook/manual still. So, if you need a beef brains recipe for feeding a couple hundred, I can look that up.

https://imgur.com/gallery/EC3fnMX

 
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