Do you have a military history in your family?

schmee

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Pretty long history in my family. A few of them:
The earliest I have found is Capt. Philip Frisbee (1740-1813) who served in the Revolution. "On 24 June 1776, two weeks before the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia, the inhabitants of Canaan (New York area) declared their independence from Great Britain in the document known as the "Canaan Declaration". One of the sixteen signers of this document was Philip Frisbee."
My Grandfather Hugh Frisbee served in WW1 in the Army, as did my other Grandfather Harley Adams Sr. and Grandfather Warren McHargue.
My Dad, and others since were Marines. My dad was a paratrooper and boxer in the Corps. After the war would jump into County Fairs etc. Once he misjudged and slammed into the side of a tank on display at the fair.
His brother, my Uncle Skip, was in the 4th wave to the beach at Iwo Jima.
He was flown to Washington and met with the President along with a group of others shortly before he died.
Skip:
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Dismalhead

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Yes, but a weak one.

Both my dad and my mom met in the Navy. She did clerical stuff, he was a dental assistant. 20 years later I was a legal clerk back in the '80s in the Army. We all did one term and didn't re-up when it came time. Grandfather got rejected in WWII for medical - he worked in a shipyard.

Only person I can think of who saw combat was my step-grandfater who drove a tank in Europe in WWII.
 
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markal

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Sort of, but mostly not in/for the US. I’m first generation American, child of Cuban refugees who fled Castro’s regime in the early 1960s. Both of my fathers’ brothers, as well as an uncle (by marriage) were in a militia for Castro’s regime after Bautista fled and Castro took over. They were all in for Castro for a while. My father also supported Castro at first, but quickly realized that Castro was going to be another dictator, just a communist one rather than a right wing dictator, and started to speak out against the “revolution.” He almost got arrested (and could well have been executed) on several occasions. That’s when he decided to leave, 1962. His brothers eventually realized they were wrong about Castro and fled as well, but some years later.

Interestingly, one of my mother’s cousins left Cuba (I think before Castro, he was older) and was trained as an MD in France and then I think trained in surgery here. Upon moving to the US, he was drafted in the US Army as a surgeon and went to Viet Nam. He has a medal (I forget which) for operating on a Vietnamese soldier (one of our allied soldiers) who had a rocket propelled grenade lodged in his abdomen. The grenade had not gone off. They built a brick wall with holes so my mom’s cousin, Otto, could do the simple procedure without risking his life.

That’s about it. On my wife’s side, there’s a long history of military service including her father and his brother.
 

__HKGuns__

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Very long, including myself.

My Great Great Grandfather was killed during the battle of BuckHead Church near Waynesborough GA during the early stage of Sherman's march to the Sea. He was a Seargent in the 3rd Kentucky Cavalry and most likely died holding rear guard of a bridge they were crossing during a retreat.

Further back, I have others who served during the Revolutionary War, on the winning side.
 
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Alex W

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I think almost every family has some military service history. The most notable in my family include a distant relative who was a confederate general in the Civil War, my maternal great grandfather who was a captain in a confederate cavalry unit, and my maternal grandfather who served as an ambulance driver in the 110th Sanitary Train of the 35th Division. He was fairly old to have served in WW1, having been born in 1888. My father served in the Navy immediately after the Korean War in the early 1950s.

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TheDams

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I am French, 3 in my family died in WW1 (one in 1915 and 2 in 1917), and one died in the Henri Barbusse battalion of the International Brigades Spain in early 1937.

As for me, don’t know if that counts, I did my 18 months of “service militaire” (when it was still mandatory) at the 22ème RIMA (Regiment d’Infantrie de Marine) as an AMX-30 tank driver.
 
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Chud

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Strong back to WWII, some haziness around great grandfathers and great uncles who were in WWI though I do recall some talk of that when I was young. Grandfathers/step-grandfather and great uncles all served in various theaters in WWII. My mom’s father was an army tanker in the European and African theaters. The only reason I know this is from inheriting his uniforms and medals/ribbons/commendations that tell the stories he never even mentioned. His brother Gordy served as well and also never spoke a word of where he was or what he did, but was a PTSD mess until the day he died.

There was a third brother, a Marine, who was killed on Saipan. My great uncle Smokey. I inherited his burial flag. Step-grandmother was a WAVE during WWII, step-grandfather was a Navy Corpsman with the Marines during the island hopping campaign ending up on Guadalcanal.

I don’t think anyone stayed in to serve in Korea, but the next generation made up of my biological father and various uncles served in Vietnam and the following peacetime era. My uncle Butch did his 30 in the Navy, mostly on nuclear subs. He’s a bit odd…lol.

I served in the Marines as a Scout for 1st Tank Bn during the Gulf War. I’m probably going to be the last of my family to serve as neither of my biological uncles had kids, my brother went a different way, and I’m not sure yet whether I would want my daughter to join up when she reaches that age.
 

bobio

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Off the top of my head, my father was in the Air Force and an uncle on my mother's side was in the Navy.
I am not sure, further back than that. Learning more about my family history is on my bucket list. 🙂

Dad_smaller.jpg
 

tfarny

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My dad enlisted rather than be drafted, he got in before Vietnam got too hot, instead he was stationed in Germany at the height of the cold war. To hear him talk about it, they spent most of their time partying, and then travelling around Italy when on leave.

He signed up as a reservist in the 1980s and specialized in electronics repair, his unit was called up in 1991, right before he was set to muster out, and he served in Iraq / Kuwait (the first one) at age 49. Again he did not see shooting action but Saddam launched a bunch of scuds his general direction and he spent a lot of time with a gas mask around his neck ready to get on.
 

bowman

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My dad: Army - WWII
His brother: Army - Korea
One grandfather: US Marines
That’s all I really know about my family and the military. Before my grandparents, all of my relatives were immigrants, so any military history would have been in the UK, Ireland, Italy, or Portugal. My dad was actually born in London, but came here as a kid.
 

1stpitch

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I had 5 uncles serve in WWII; 2 were bomber pilots and are buried in Belgium, one other is buried in France. Dad was Korea. Brother was AF, and a part of the failed mission to rescue the embassy hostages in Iran. Great-great grandfather served in the Civil War.
 
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Gardo

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My father was part of the Army of Occupation in Germany after the war. Several uncles were in Europe during the war . My great grandfather was sent to the Philippines during the Spanish American war, he was in the army but I’m not sure exactly what he did there.
Going way back an ancestor who was part of a militia and was killed during the revolution
 




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