Do you have a military history in your family?

[Twofingerlou]

While I never served, and looking back often more than not I wish I had. My family has had various ones serve throughout the years going back to my great grandpa that served in WW1. I have some great uncles that served in WW2, one was shot during combat in the battle of the bulge.

When WW2 broke out and they were kicking off the draft my grandmas two brothers decided instead of the probability of getting drafted in the army they willingly enlisted in the navy where one ended up serving over 20 years. During the war they left behind my grandma, her sister and their single mom and sent the money they got back home to help ends meet during the depression. Other wise their sole source of income would have been what they grew in their garden and living off rations at the time.

Both my grandpas served in the Korean War. On my dads side, grandpa was stationed actually in Korea and ran artillery and was one of the frozen chosen as they say. On my moms side my other grandpa was stationed in Germany. All we knew was he ran tanks and drove the brass around other times and he helped guard the chezch border.

Since grandma passed a while back we’ve been going through things and in the closet we found this. My grandpas army uniform!!

I did some homework and the two upright bars are rank, guess he was a corporal. The shoulder patch took a lot more Google digging and after a chat with a couple army buddies he was in the seventh army or also known as the seven steps to hell. One of my army buddies said man that’s pretty wild that was his unit, they’ve got a pretty wild history!

When we found the note of grandmas final requests she said her dads dog tags were hidden in her jewelry box (my great grandpa that served in WW1). She asked to be buried with one and we keep the second one. We still have one and I never knew back then they were round instead of oval.

Now I have the uniform and my other grandpa that served in Korea, I have his dog tags. Another interesting find was grandma wedding dress, what I find interesting with all this is the fabric difference from the 50’s then compared to now.

Either way I thought I’d share

 

[arlum]

A very strong history on both sides of the family. My two uncles on my mother's side of the family both served in the Navy in World War Two. Of my three uncles on my fathers side of the family one was in the Navy during Vietnam and two were in the Air Force, (one in World War Two and Korea and one in Korea and Vietnam). My father served in the Navy during the Korean War and earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart with the Bronze Star added to it. I did a four year hitch in the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman starting during Vietnam and ending in 1977. My oldest son was a Navy Hospital Corpsman who served in the Fleet Marines.

 

[Dan German]

Well, an ancestor threw out the Spanish and created the nation of Chile. Does that count?

 

[Twofingerlou]

A very strong history on both sides of the family. My two uncles on my mother's side of the family both served in the Navy in World War Two. Of my three uncles on my fathers side of the family one was in the Navy during Vietnam and two were in the Air Force, (one in World War Two and Korea and one in Korea and Vietnam). My father served in the Navy during the Korean War and earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart with the Bronze Star added to it. I did a four year hitch in the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman starting during Vietnam and ending in 1977. My oldest son was a Navy Hospital Corpsman who served in the Fleet Marines.

Thanks for your service!

 

[24 track]

Dad and Mom , WW2 Dad was an officer , Mom was a machinist when they convereted the Singer sewing machine co into an arms manufacturing plant , she made a pair of chrome 45cal, pearl handle units, I'm not sure who has them in Scotland.
My Dad told her family he had a gopher farm in Alberta,and they believed him,

I was thinking of ROTC when I was 16-17 but life got in the way

 

[Cali Dude]

My Dad served in the Nava during the Korean war. I also had a brother who served in the army.

 

[Tarkus60]

Yes

 

[Jakedog]

My first ancestor to land in the new world (that we can trace and prove, there may have been some before him) hit the Virginia colony in 1632. As soon as there was a need and a call for folks here, my family started serving.

My little brother and I are the oldest of “the grandkids” on both sides of my family. As near as we can tell, we were the first male members of the family ever that didn’t go that route. We were followed by several cousins, but several other cousins also opted to go that direction and sign up.

I was raised on military bases. I understand the attraction, but I never felt it.

 

[Frontman]

My grandfather first enlisted in the Army in 1933 at the age of 14, and became a Cavalryman. He served under colonels (later generals) Patton and Wainwright. When WW2 broke out, he was deployed the Pacific with his troop. He fought in The Philippines, and was evacuated with MacArthur before Wainwright surrendered the country to the Japanese.

He returned under MacArthur with a new troop, and was part of the invasion of the Philippines, which eventually drove the Japanese out. He was then sent with the fleet to Japan to accept the Japanese surrender. He was present on the deck of the Missouri for the surrender, and then became part of the occupation forces.

After only a few months he was injured in an explosion of captured munitions which were being dumped at sea. He was one of only 2 survivors of this incident, and received a medical discharge. His brothers and sister served in the war as well, his brothers going back to the farm when the war ended. His sister would go on to serve in the Berlin airlift, the Korean War, and then the Vietnam war, retiring as a full colonel.

My father was in the air force, and discharged before the Vietnam war.

I enlisted in the Army for operation Desert Storm, volunteering to be a paratrooper and then for the Rangers. The war was over before I finished training.

The earliest written record of my family in wartime shows two of my ancestors dying at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.

 

[Twofingerlou]

My first ancestor to land in the new world (that we can trace and prove, there may have been some before him) hit the Virginia colony in 1632. As soon as there was a need and a call for folks here, my family started serving.

My little brother and I are the oldest of “the grandkids” on both sides of my family. As near as we can tell, we were the first male members of the family ever that didn’t go that route. We were followed by several cousins, but several other cousins also opted to go that direction and sign up.

I was raised on military bases. I understand the attraction, but I never felt it.

Curious how do you trace that far back?

 

[Jakedog]

Curious how do you trace that far back?

My father in law before he passed was seriously into genealogy. He dug way deep into every branch of the family he could find. DNA, written records, ship’s passenger manifests, it was his life’s work.

 

[notmyusualuserid]

"Have you been in the Forces?" is a question that almost never comes up in casual conversation here. If it does the usual answer is yes/no and we move on to other topics.

 

[dlew919]

My great aunty married a man six weeks before World War Two. He was killed in early 1940.

My uncle served in the Chockos (essentially the home based reserves.) He was a guard at the Cowra Prisoner of War camp when there was a mass breakout of Japanese prisoners. He only ever spoke about it once (there were many deaths on both sides) and it transpired he was knocked unconscious and his nose broken by an escaping prisoner.

Three of dad's cousins served in Papua New Guinea. I'm not sure if they were at the Kokoda track. Again, they never or very rarely spoke about it. They marched in Anzac Day. My uncle never did (as far as I remember)

My aunty's husband was in the Occupation forces in Japan in 1946. He was in a train accident which killed the two men next to him.

My grandfather on my father's side was just too young for World War One, and had five kids by World War Two.

My grandfather on my mother's side attempted to sign up for World War Two, but as he had 2 children and was in a prescribed vocation (he was a police officer), he was rejected for service.

My cousins never served, except for my cousin who was in the army reserve while she was at university.

(Most of us were too young for Vietnam. My war would have been Iraq 1, Iraq 2, East Timor or Afghanistan. I didn't go. Friends of mine did though. One will likely not recover emotionally)

*Edit*
My father did national service in the 1950s. There was talk his regiment may have gone to Malaysia but another unit was sent.

 

[ETMusic777]

About 6 months ago, I was on the website "find a grave" doing to research in to my family history. My father's side of the family were German/French. His mom was the French side and they came to America in the late 1700s. My dad's fathers side were frontiersman and farmers in Michigan, who originated from Germany in the early 1700s. Pretty cool.

But what is really cool, is that I found a photo of my Grandfather's grave stone. He died before I was born, so I never met him. Wow! I had no idea that he fought in WWI. My father never told me that...in fact they rarely mentioned him at all. I grew up going to my grandmas house almost every weekend with my dad but she was deaf by that point and we did not communicate all that well. Nice lady though. However I was never told anything about my grandfather, and I was too young and too dumb to ask. From what I have read, his division was one of the first to enter France and later Germany in WWI. I wonder how much action he saw?

My Dad went over to Hiroshima in 1947 as an 18 year old in the Air Force to help the rebuilding effort after the atomic bomb destroyed the city. He spent 2 years there. He did not talk about it much, but once told me that the entire city was flattened and people were living in the dirt on the sides of the road with very little cover. He learned some Japanese expressions while he was there and would sometimes use them, referring to himself as "Watashi Wa".

I believe that he got radiation poisoning while he was there. By 35, his joints all froze up with debilitating arthritis. I was born when he was in his 40s and as long as I knew him, he was in pain. Much of his body was covered in psoriasis. He lived most of his life in pain. In his 60s he had a double bypass, prostrate enlargement and esophageal cancer which took his life at 69. He was a healthy eater, non smoker who was athletic as a kid and tried to exercise as much as he could despite being in pain his entire life. I believe he is what is now known as an "atomic veteran". Some gave all even after they were discharged. There is a photo of him in 1967 holding a Silvertone guitar, so I think he tried to play even with his arthritic fingers. He also played a little piano and trombone and was a big classical music, opera and Beatles fans among other rock bands from the late 60s. Later in life he started playing golf again, having oversized grips made for his clubs. Even though he could not drive more than 150yds, he had a great short game and was an excellent golfer. When he was a kid before Japan, he used to win tournaments. Golf, literature and music made him happy.

 

[omahaaudio]

One of my ancestors formed the New Model Army in 1645 and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1653 to 1658, and my Dad was a navigator in the Polish Air Force during WW2 and helped supply resistence fighters in eastern Europe (including the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 with some crazy-ass night time supply drops.

 

[Old Deaf Roadie]

That is a cool story! My own dad served as a driver in a munitions company under George Patton and was stopped next to the USO photographer when Patton opened his drawers to take a leak into the Rhine, and managed to get his own photo. One of my siblings has that pic and I would love to donate that to a museum.

 

[notmyusualuserid]

One of my ancestors formed the New Model Army in 1645 and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1653 to 1658, and my Dad was a navigator in the Polish Air Force during WW2 and helped supply resistence fighters in eastern Europe (including the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 with some crazy-ass night time supply drops.

Your ancestor was Oliver Cromwell?

 

[Tricone]

Yes.

 

[Lonn]

My older brothers were Coast Guard, Marines, and Army. I did 21 years active duty Air Force.

 

[oatsoda]

Both sides of my family served, and some led. From the Battle of Hastings in 1066 to the The Duke of Wellington (Waterloo) himself, up to WW1 and great uncle Purse who was gassed in the trenches. We’re also proud of those who served in other ways like my uncle who was a C.O. during Nam but didn’t run away and mopped floors in a military hospital for three years.

Since then honestly my siblings and cousins have mostly been over educated fat academics with PHDs, (not that thers

I was only paramilitary, in the state conservation corps. I was an Energy Specialist in the CCC, and I am proud of all the work we did. Thirty years later still working in energy conservation.