Both my grandfathers were teens in WWI, so too young. By WWII, they were a train engineer & a telephone lineman, so I’m thinking they avoided the war due to necessary skills needed here.
My father was a staff sergeant in the Air Force during the Korean war; he was stationed at Castle Air Force Base in California, editor of the base newspaper. Non-war-related side note: While there, he started doing some summer stock theater with a local group. During a production of Dracula (he played Renfield), a female character died off-stage by choking, and in order to make a convincing sound of choking, they had my dad “choke” the actress who played the dying character. That actress was my mother; that’s how they met.
My two oldest brothers were old enough to be drafted for Vietnam. As the draft was being made up using lists of high school graduates, and as both of them had dropped out of high school after their sophomore year, one of them just didn’t register and lived in fear. The other one of them did register and he lived in fear, too. Neither got drafted.
my father also worked as a welder in the boxcar repair shop in Omaha NE’s UPRR rail yards. He tried to enlist but was declared essential for the war effort.
My older brother enlisted in the Marines, but this was after Korea. I was of draft age during the Vietnam war, but my draft lottery number was 333. This meant that I was unlikely to be drafted. I did not voluntarily enlist.
My nephew was in the Air Force and was part of the Srbia/Croatia conflict. He has since retired and in his post retirement job spends quite a lot of time in our current war zones. He does not really talk about what his job is…
My family generations have been pretty much out of phase with the major wars.
My grandparents & their siblings were kids or tweens during WWI and too old to fight when US participation began in WWII. Of my parents, aunts, and uncles, only the very oldest were old enough to participate in WWII. They all made it back more or less intact. The youngest were about right for Korea and indeed my Dad served during the Korean war but by luck of the draw was in the Atlantic/Europe theater, not in Korea itself.
Of the next generation only the oldest were eligible for Viet Nam. I did lose one distant cousin there, and had a couple others who were combat vets. Viet Nam ended when I was still in High School.
I served for 8 years roughly coinciding with the Reagan presidency. During which time nothing much happened. There was lots of sub rosa organized violence, but no large scale activities. I was in during the invasion of Grenada but my unit didn’t participate. I got out shortly before the invasion of Panama.
Makes me think of one of those late 1950s cartoons showing Mr. Magoo walking blindly through one peril after another just happening to not step in the hole or in front of the truck, or moving aside just before the piano falls. Timing is everything.
Paternal grandfather was briefly in the Army in WWI until they figured out he wasn’t yet a citizen, and that ended that. Maternal grandfather was too young for WWI and too old for WWII.
My dad was too young for WWII, but he was a Korea era vet, and he spent most of his time in San Diego. My dad’s 3 brothers-in-law served in WWII - I know one was a SeaBee but I don’t know what the other 2 did - all were uninjured. Mom’s 2 brothers were in the army after Korea but before VietNam.
Only one of my male cousins was old enough to serve in VietNam - he did his tour and came home unscathed. I’m a VietNam era vet, but there was never any chance of me being in theater. In fact, the most hazardous duty I faced was having to drive to and from the Pentagon when I was stationed there - DC traffic can be brutal!
All of the males in my parents and grandparents generations served in various capacities, but we only lost one member - my maternal grandmother’s eldest brother. He was an aviator in WWI and crashed during what would have been his last mission.
My relatives tended to be older than my classmates. Their fathers were Viet Nam era. My father was WWII era. I’m the youngest, he was the youngest and his father married late.
My Grandfather was 35 years old when WWI started for the US. He certainly wasn’t going to be drafted. My father was in Marine Boot Camp when the bombs were dropped on Japan. He spend the aftermath of the war in DC. He checked in to see if he would be recalled for Korea. It was a possibility but they were mostly taking combat veterans back in. Out of all of my uncles I only had one who was in heavy combat in Korea and WWII.
Our combat casualty luck ran out a couple of years ago when a cousin on my father’s side was killed in Afghanistan. A cousin on my mother’s side died on 911 as a member of the FDNY.
I don’t know if you can say large involvement in both wars, as I’m an American, but my great-grandfather was part of the AEF 7th Infantry Division in France during 1917 and 1918, and suffered a shrapnel wound.
My maternal grandfather was a US 8th Air Force B-17 crewman in Fall 1943, and my paternal grandfather was a tank driver originally associated with the Armored Forces Command, and then with the Army amphibious tractor battalions slated to invade Japan. Neither grandfather was wounded in the least. 2 great uncles were also in the Army and survived the war.
Dad was in the USAF from 1969-1973, but was stationed in San Antonio the entire time.
Thanks, for reminding of the 1918 – 19 influenza pandemic. My family do seem indeed to have been lucky in the decade of the 1910s: nobody on my mother’s side of the family died from the “Spanish 'flu”. As mentioned, I know far less about my father’s side a century ago.
My maternal grandfather’s brother who died in 1915 (mentioned in my OP), is the subject of a sad family story. It seems that he was a delightful guy, beloved by all who knew him and missed by those who remembered him in later years; but he and his siblings were afflicted with an extremely domineering, controlling, and rather cold mother, who was a strong hater of many people and organisations. As regards her son P., the subject of the story: she highly disapproved of both the career he wished to follow (farming), and the girl he wanted to marry. Around 1908 or ‘09, P. tried to break away by signing up for a scheme inviting people to go to Canada and develop wild country there, by setting up farms. His hope, I understand, was to become a successful farmer in Canada, and send for his fiancée to come and join him out there, and marry him.
It appears that there were dodgy and shady things about the scheme – for P. at any rate, on his reaching Canada it proved impossible for his plans to get off the ground. Desperate for any kind of work – of which there was little for which he was fitted, at that time and place – he ended up working in laundries in railway construction camps: which occupation sounds hellish, and which caused him to contract severe tuberculosis. He ended up going back to Britain to die – it could well be that his family sent him the money for the fare.
P.’s unhappy tale is told, in a memoir by an uncle of mine. Said uncle’s writing style is rather bald and terse – he puts things as: “P. returned home and his mother was delighted until she learned of his failing health. There being no known treatment for TB and no hospital places for such, he stayed at home and was soon bed-ridden and didn’t last long.” I realise what is truly meant here; but with the laconic and downbeat delivery… I must have an evil mind – because on my first reading, this passage conjured up a scenario of the fierce lady’s being glad, at first, to have her son back; but her attitude changing when she discovered that he was mortally ill, to, “Well, it turns out that he’s now useless, and at death’s door. And there’s a war on, and everything – so, sod him --we’ll have him put to sleep right away”.
Oh, and as for WWI, my maternal grandfather, an only child, was in high school when the US entered the war, while my paternal grandfather and his brother (or all of his brothers, as I’m not sure if he had any others besides the one I know about) were middle-aged.
My great grandfathers on both sides were a bit too old for WWI so while they all registered they were never called up. During WWII my grandfathers and their brothers on both sides were also a little old. And all were farmers - I’m not sure if that was a reason they didn’t serve.
My father’s father was an infantryman in WWI and served in France, but he came home unscathed, as far as I know. My mother’s father was too young for WWI and too old for WWII (besides by WWII, he had a family.)
My father and his older brother fought in WWII, his brother in the Air Corps, my father in the infantry. He came down with frozen feet during the battle of the Bulge and was sent back to England. His two younger brothers fought in Korea and came home okay.
I had a low draft number during Vietnam, so I joined the Air Force and stayed out of Vietnam. My cousin on my father’s side was a Marine, but he spent his entire time in the band in San Diego. My cousin on my mother’s side went to Vietnam. I don’t know if he had PTSD, but many years later, he wound up committing suicide.
My mothers father was drafted for WW 1 spent time at Ft. Still, OK but the war was over before he was shipped overseas.
My father’s father was Belgian. I don’t know about WW1 but during WW 2 he was a refuge arrested by the British forces for being a spy. He and his family along with others were fleeing the Germans and had maps. He spoke English and a nurse that was traveling with them, knew him and vouched for him. My grandparents and uncle and father barely survived by moving to a small town outside of Antwerp.
You sound like my dad; I need to ask him exactly how he did it, but I think that he had a student deferment and somehow enlisted in the USAF before the Army came calling to tell him he’d been drafted.
Anyhow, he spent his entire 4 years in San Antonio, minus a few months in Colorado Springs for branch school. He was actually kind of irritated (to hear him tell it) that the war turned in such a way in late 1972 in such a way that his impending posting to Udorn Air base in Thailand was cancelled.
A former boss of mine served in the British Army from 1952 to '54, in the UK’s unique brief period of peacetime conscription for all males. With his family being of modest means, so that he’d never travelled anywhere far from home; since he had to do military service, he hoped it might take him to interesting places which would otherwise have been beyond his reach. He was a bit miffed to find that in the event, his entire Army term was spent in rather dull postings in England. Had things gone otherwise, one can see his getting an exciting trip to Korea – this, one would figure, probably not to his liking either. There’s no pleasing some people ! (I mean my boss – I do “get” bump’s father’s feelings.)