# What did your mom or dad do in the war? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 12, 2010, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390 "2010-11-12T04:03:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/141 "2010-11-19T19:39:53Z")
My father was too young for WWII and when Korea rolled around, I got him out of the draft. My grandfather missed WWI. He would have been 18 when it ended, so he probably was too young to be drafted. I did have an uncle who enlisted in WWII. He died a few days after D-Day, hit by a mortar. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/142 "2010-11-19T20:51:25Z")
My dad was a conscientious objector. As far as I know, the closest relatives I have that served in the military were a couple of great-great uncles who fought in WWI. But my grandfather worked for the railroads during WW2, which was an important job. (He had children, which I guess precluded him from fighting.) ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/143 "2010-11-20T03:30:14Z")
Pop was a Coast Guard radioman. I know, glamorous. No idea about Mom, but now that I’m wondering, I’ll ask. A family friend was doing something with submarines, but he isn’t permitted to say what, which of course meant I used to bug him about it. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/144 "2010-11-20T04:07:28Z")
My paternal grandfather was an antiaircraft gunner on a heavy landing ship that participated in many of the island assaults in the south pacific and phillipines. He wont talk about it, only reason we know anything is his step brother told us. Apparently he was one of only a few guys who managed to get through it. His ship apparently turned over like 75-80% of its crew in 9 months due to casualties. That step brother was part of the flight deck crew on the USS Yorktown, till as he put it, “it sprung a couple big leaks they couldnt fix.” 😃 He would tell some pretty vivid stories of what it was like on the flight deck during an attack. Mostly it was so loud from the combined fire of all of the AA guns that you couldnt hear yourself think. Maternal grandfather was an Aircraft mechanic at one of the airbases at pearl harbor, don’t remember which one. His description of the attack was basically, “I dunno, I spent most of it hiding under a chunk of half collapsed building.” ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/145 "2010-11-20T20:15:00Z")
My dad was 4F for Vietnam so he didn’t go. His father also wasn’t in WWII, though I’m not altogether sure why. I might have to ask. My maternal grandfather was infantry on Iwo Jima. He passed away earlier this year without having ever said much about it so I’m working with my mother to get his military record and piece together his story as best as I can. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/146 "2010-11-20T20:48:05Z")
My mother and father both served in the armed forces during the Second World War. My Grandfathers both served in the army during the Great War. One of them also served in the Boer War- and paid his own fare to South Africa to do so. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/147 "2010-11-20T23:44:32Z")
**Paternal Grandfather** : West Point grad, fought in WWII and in Korea in the US Army Infantry, retired as an Infantry Colonel in 1967, died 1981. **Maternal Grandfathe** r: Fought in WWII, was a member of the Army Air Force and later the US Air Force, retired in 1970 as an Air Force colonel, died 2004. **Father** : West Point grad, did two tours in Vietnam as a Combat Heavy Engineer, most notable aspect of his command was having to call for close-in artillery practically on his own position in 1967, resulting in casualties to his own unit as they were ambushed from higher ground by the VC. Retired in 1999 after 36 years as a major general and the Deputy Chief of Engineers. Still alive. **Uncle #1** : West Point grad, did one tour in Vietnam as a Cobra pilot, ended up being a CAB commander in Germany while I was stationed there and retired as a colonel in the late 1990’s after 30 years service. Still alive. **Uncle #2** : West Point grad, missed Vietnam and never saw action. Also a Cobra pilot, then an Apache pilot, retired after 20 years as a lieutenant colonel and now has a lucrative job with a defense contracting firm designing helicopter flight simulators. Also still alive. **Me** : Broke the mold and enlisted 🙂 (mostly because my HS grades wouldn’t have ever allowed me to get an appointment to the Point), served in the field artillery in a Counterfire Battery in Germany and then later in the first Persian Gulf War. Got out of the service in 1993 after five years. **Cousin #1** : Sergeant that served in Bosnia, then airport security then in Iraq as a member of the 10th Mountain Division. Still undergoing physical and mental rehab for shoulder injuries and PTSD, and is also cocaine addicted. \*\*Cousin #\*\*2: Is currently an MP in the Army, has served in Iraq. I have a couple other uncles that served as officers in the Army, one that’s deceased that retired as a Marine colonel, but jeez…my list is long enough already! Suffice to say my family has served quite a bit in the military! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/148 "2010-11-21T00:02:08Z")
My Dad was a Sergeant in G2 in Burma in WW2. He hated it, would not talk about it. My understanding was that it was jungle warfare long before the US ever thought much about Vietnam. He did not like “_The Bridge on the River Kwai_”, but he/we watched it everytime it was on. My Mom took college courses. My uncle who, depending on who you talked to (& who was w/i earshot) I may have been named after, was in the army in the European theater in France. He was a supply clerk. He served in a small town there for a while. You might have heard of it. I believe its called Bastogne. He survived. And yes, there’s a grave in Arlington that has my same name on it. A better man is burried there today than the one who posts before you now. PS- He’s the one who promised me his Garand when he passed. The one I never got. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/149 "2010-11-21T02:08:36Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > My Dad was a Sergeant in G2 in Burma in WW2. He hated it, would not talk about it. My understanding was that it was jungle warfare long before the US ever thought much about Vietnam. He did not like “_The Bridge on the River Kwai_”, but he/we watched it everytime it was on. My Mom took college courses. The movie actually sugar-coated the brutality. It was much, much worse than they tried to portray. In particular, I doubt any of the men would have been in good-enough shape to hold an enthusiastic cabaret revue. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/150 "2010-12-01T02:53:51Z")
> [@lawoot](#): > > My father did a brief stint in, I believe, the Army Signal Corps in the Korean Era. Don’t know exactly when, as he never really talked about it much. Don’t think he ever saw any combat, though. Time to e-mail my brother, see if he knows. Yup.. radio man. Never went offshore though. ---
**Author:** ![noskcire001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d6d6ee/32.png) [@noskcire001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/noskcire001)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/151 "2011-11-26T17:51:49Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Any war, that is. All my Facebook friends are posting all about their dads who are all war heroes pounding out democracy with fists of justice, you know? My dad was a boiler tender. 🙂 He served on the USS John W. Thomasson in the Korean War and if you ask him he had the most important job on the ship (arguably true, as a destroyer isn’t a lot of good if you can’t get it to go anywhere.) I’m hoping the Navy gets back to me about reissuing his medals before Christmas. > > So what unappreciated job did your dad do in the military? During WWII my dad was barred from joining the military because of his education and the aircraft he was working on. He was working on the Bell-P59, America’s first jet plane. The war ended before the P-59 could be put into production. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/152 "2011-11-26T18:49:43Z")
My parents were both engineers doing war research at a large think tank, which is where they met. ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/153 "2011-11-26T18:56:30Z")
WWII Canadian, Stepfather: Navigator in Lancasters, had to bail out of them twice during the war due to flak (shit his pants both times). Lost his best friend (tail gunner) blown to bits on one of his flights. Mothers side: Great Uncle served in Infantry. Granpa hid in the woods duringt the whole war hiding from the Military Police. Maybe it was a good thing he did he might of ending up being part of the Dieppe debacle. I’ve tried to get more information from my grandmother regarding my uncle in the infantry. But evidently turned out to be a very bad memories for her and never brought it up again, unfortunately. I’d like to know what my great uncle did. ---
**Author:** ![Cap\_n\_Obvious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@Cap\_n\_Obvious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cap_n_Obvious)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/154 "2011-11-26T18:58:34Z")
As far as I’m aware, none of my family has ever served in the military. Looking at the dates of the wars going back to WW1, all the males in the family were either too young or too old whenever a draft was called. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/155 "2011-11-26T19:02:47Z")
My parents were born in 53 and 59. Both of them escaped war like how you talk about it. In fact, I believe my mother was on the protesting end of Vietnam. Young, but she had older sisters. My other mother didn’t “do” anything in WWII because she was born shortly after in a DP camp in Haifa, but her uncle fought in the Israeli war for independence and was part of the Polish ‘underground’. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/156 "2011-11-26T20:46:30Z")
Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/157 "2011-11-26T20:58:35Z")
> [@congodwarf](#): > > My mother was in the Army band at the tail end of the Vietnam War. She joined the military in 1972 or 1973 (she just told me on Thursday and I forgot already) and left sometime between 1977 and 1980 (after my oldest sister was born but before me). She traveled Europe, playing the flute and later, the piccolo. She met my “father” while in the band. He played the clarinet. I have no idea if he was in during the war or not. If he was, it was likely just a few months since he didn’t even turn 18 until 1974. You ever have one of those times where you see a thread and respond to it, only to realize that the thread is a year old and you already responded to it? That just happened to me. Pretty much wrote the same thing both times - except I expanded on my mother’s story a bit so here it is… My mom joined the Army to be in the band. Her recruiter told her that she absolutely would be in the band. She ended up in the post office, sorting and delivering mail. She was miserable. One day, an officer came in to the PO and said he was part of a program to improve morale in the Army. He wanted to know if she was happy in her job. She said no and explained that she had joined up to be in the band. He asked if she still wanted to be in the band and she said yes. He got her an audition! Shortly after their meeting, she found herself in the office of some Captain she had never met, warming up for an audition. She practiced songs she had in her memory and then left the office to audition. She ended up being accepted into the band just based on what they heard of her warming up. It was a good thing they liked what they heard because she never learned to read music and was afraid they’d want her to sight read something she had never heard before. As long as she had heard a piece played once, on any instrument, she could play it perfectly on her flute. So, she was accepted and was promptly shipped off to Europe. A few years later, after marrying my douche of a father and getting pregnant for the first time, she left the Army. A few years after that, after divorcing the douche, she went back to college and got a night job…sorting mail at the Post Office. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/158 "2011-11-26T22:07:15Z")
My father joined the Navy on his 18th birthday. He wanted to enlist earlier but his parents would not give permission and because he was their only child he couldn’t convince the enlistment officers to help him waive that requirement. He started basic training in California and the first week he was there the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan and by the time he completed basic Japan had unconditionally surrendered. Thus he told me quite truthfully “We were at war with Japan for almost four years, then I enlisted… and those sons of bitches surrendered before I even got on a boat to go over there. I had a reputation you see.” I of course shared this in Show And Tell (my teacher knew my father so she thought it was funny but still told him) and he was embarrassed. He served two years and the closest he saw to action was a Zero that was shot down a few months after the surrender on one of the semi-legendary “islands where they didn’t know [or didn’t care] the war was over”. My mother was a child during WW2. Her main memory was of the air raid curtains (which my grandmother kept for the rest of her life because she liked a dark room) and the ration coupons; everybody was thrilled that the ration booklets had coupons for two (or was it three?) pairs of shoes per year per child, because- coming out of the Depression and wearing hand-me-downs from older siblings most of their life- they thought that meant they were going to _get_ that many which was more than they’d ever had. (They didn’t understand that was how many you could _buy_, not that the government was going to give you shoes.) My father always felt horribly guilty for suggesting the military to some of his students- mainly those from impoverished or very unhappy homes- during Vietnam because at least a couple were killed over there. This was before it was realized just how unlike any previous war Vietnam was. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/159 "2011-11-26T22:12:47Z")
My father was an Air Force pilot during Vietnam. I actually have no idea if he ever actually went TO Vietnam…he rarely talked about it. His best friend, his cousin, died over there, and that may be part of why. After my mom’s death, I found discharge papers for him in her papers that indicated that he was stationed in Germany and various bases in the US, but nothing about Vietnam. ---
**Author:** ![DadWagonDriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390/160 "2011-11-26T23:21:31Z")
My dad spent 1967-1969 at Ft. Bliss tracking aircraft on a plexiglass wall with a grease pencil. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-your-mom-or-dad-do-in-the-war/560390.md?page=9)