What did your mom or dad do in the war?

In My Humble Opinion
81

I got a laugh out of this. There might have been a reason that he would tell the man who is dating his daughter “You should know that I have killed people before.” The unspoken message is clear!

My dad was in the Swiss Army (which hasn’t seen any actual combat in a long time.) He was in the Army band, playing the trumpet. He would double as a medic in case of combat. The only weapon he had was a long knife, a bayonet type. I asked him “what were you supposed to do with that?” and he told me he would use it to finish off anyone on the battlefield that was in pain and couldn’t be saved. I could never tell if he was kidding or not.

82

What about the multi-function knife?

83

He had one of those too, I don’t remember exactly which version he had. The simple version probably.

P.S. I forgot to mention that my father was too young for World War II and served after that. His godfather (my father’s godfather), who worked on my grandfather’s farm, served during the war and was guarding the Swiss border. He told me that he once saw a man running towards the border in the night, shouted out “Halt”, the man didn’t stop, and he shot his rifle. The man dropped down and in the morning no one was there. He always assumed he had shot and probably killed someone and felt really bad about it.

84

My dad was a foot soldier in the Pacific Theatre during WWII. He was based in both the Phillipines and New Guinea and must have taken whatever R&R they were given in Australia. I only remember the last part because, as a kid, he knew a great deal about the country.

My mom didn’t enter the service at all. She went from high school (class of '41) straight to work, splitting time between her family’s diner and working as a secretary.

All my father’s info was lost in the US Army archive fire back sometime in the 70s. I don’t know what rank he attained, nor do I know what his title was. I don’t know where he enlisted or when he was discharged. I’d like to find out someday.

85

I was a medic in the US Army, (later worked in supply) and my husband was a door gunner and helicopter mechanic. This was during the Vietnam war.

86

My dad was a mechanic in the Marines during WWII. He tried to enlist on December 8, 1941, but was 10 days short of his 18th birthday at the time. He spent his time island hopping in the South Pacific, but never saw any combat. That’s about all I know about the time that he served, as he didn’t like to talk about it.

87

Maybe protested a bit. Tried to convince the working class to organize against their captialist oppressors. Counter-protested Illinois Nazis. That sort of thing :).

But I did have an ancestor who fought as an officer in Napoleon’s “Croat” light horse, if that counts :p.

88

Canada - My Dad was a navigator in a two-man plane called a ‘Mosquito’ with the RCAF, 409 Squadron. The Nighthawks - Media Nox Meridies Noster. Mostly, this involved short range night flights to guard the coast of Britain. He saw quite a bit of action.

My Mum was working in a factory in Glasgow, making engine parts.

89

Dad stayed in college, just in case war broke out again (seventies, after Nam). But my grandfather served in WWII in the Navy on the Foote, right up to and through the part where the torpedo damn near sank the thing, and one of my uncles (and numerous other relations) were in the Navy during Korea, radiomen all. They used to pass family gossip between official messages.

90

Which explains the giant gun cabinet/Marine paraphernalia display case my brother built in his living room once his daughters entered their teens.

91

My dad got drafted by the Army the day he was planning to go to the Marines’ office to enlist.

He ended up spending his two years ('67-'69) at Ft. Bliss, TX. He was an MP for a while and also did some sort of aircraft tracking. He’s left-handed and can write backwards, so he had to write stuff on a Plexiglas wall for the people on the other side to read.

My mom has no military experience.

Her dad was a tank commander during the Korean War. His best friend got hit by a mortar just a couple feet from him, and my grandfather apparently never recovered from the horrors of war. My mom and her siblings seem not to have been too fond of him; he died well before I was born of a massive heart attack when he was only 38 or 41.

My dad’s dad was part of the Normandy invasion… as a field dentist. Essentially, his job was to put jaws back together after they had been blown apart. In civilian life, he made dentures.

I need to check with my dad on this, but I think his mom or one of his aunts was a Rosie. One aunt of his was an Army secretary. She passed away last year and was buried with full military honors; she had always been proud of her contribution. I wish I had been able to fly to Minnesota for that.

92

My paternal grandfather was an Army medical officer during the Philippine Insurrection. Served in the US. My father was an Army medical officer during WWII. Served at (then) Camp Polk, LA, North Africa and finished the war at Ft Sam Huston, TX. His son was an Army judge advocate during Vietnam. Served At Ft Leonard Wood and in Germany. I don’t think any of the three heard a shot fired in anger. A long family tradition of rear echelon service.

93

My Dad was drafted during the Korean War, but by the time he finished his training, the war was over. He served his time in New Jersey, as a paymaster at Fort Dix. My Mom never served in the military.

94

The main thing my dad did during (after) WWII was get born in a displaced persons camp. The main thing my grandparents did was survive Auschwitz.

My dad was later to be a Vietnam draft dodger (he had a legit, but overblown by a family doctor, medical condition of the heart. He was also married AND in grad school AND had children).

My mom’s contribution to the Yom Kippur War, in Israel, was to kill most of the calves on the kibbutz, since she had only been there a week before the people who knew about cows got called up, and left her by herself in charge. My mom grew up in Queens, NYC, which should give you an idea about how much she knew about cows.

95

Dad was in WWII. An infantry man, he was shot during the Battle of the Bulge. After that he was a cook, but was shortly sent to England to work on boat engines.
Bronze Star, Purple Heart and three other medals are in a display box along with unit patches and various insignia. Below is a picture of him as a soldier. This is my way of remembering him.

96

My father was a tanker with Patton’s army in Europe.

Mom worked in various factorys in Baltimore.

One of my uncles was in the the army and made three major landing in Europe: North Africa, Sicily, Normandy. I didn’t know that until just a few years ago when my cousin told me.

I was in the Marines in Vietnam.

97

My father was a GI during WW II. He originally was sent to Georgia Tech to finish his degree but the Army canceled that program as the war was ending so he ended up serving in France and Germany for the last 6 months of the war. He ran an anti-tank weapon.

Had he been in the Navy he would not have seen WW II combat, he would have been able to finish his degree around 1947 and then served after that. He could have been in the Navy for Korea.

98

My father was in the infantry, WWII. He had signed up for the Army Specialized Training Program, which sent thousands of soldiers and high school graduates to college with the goal of preparing them for service as engineers, administrators, and whatnot. The program ended after less than a year, and except for a few who were retained under other programs, all those bright young men got shipped off to basic and, mostly, the infantry. Dad was a scout; offered the opportunity to train as a sniper, he declined.

His father was in the Navy; a senior enlisted man before the war, he was made an officer when things got tight, and ultimately commanded a ship of some kind.

Mom was a teenager in Amsterdam when the Germans invaded, and most of her family was captured, killed, or dispersed (her father was a prominent communist, and was arrested early on and sent to Buchenwald; her mother was eventually captured and died in a camp – Ravensbruck, I think; of her brothers, one died fighting, one died in a camp, and one joined the merchant marine and went a bit mad, and died in an asylum sometime in the '60s). She took up with the resistance and served as a courier, smuggling messages, guns, food, etc., and somehow managed to keep a large dog alive and fed.

My father went to school in Switzerland after the war, where he met my mother – who was, I think, recuperating, but may have been taking business classes. They were married by her father in Amsterdam, and lived in Switzerland until 1950. My oldest brother was born there, in Lausanne.

99

My father was an Army helicopter mechanic/door gunner in Vietnam. Doesn’t talk about it much except to say that his primary goal was to come home to his baby daughter and he did what he had to, to that end. Makes me sad because it’s hard to imagine my dad in those terms. He’s a caregiver and a compassionate man to the marrow. After the war, he became an RN due in no small part to his up-close exposure to the army medics and the GI Bill. He was never injured, to my knowledge, but his ship went down killing several of his buddies on that crew shortly after he had received a transfer of duties that kept him grounded while finishing the remaining few weeks of his tour. It was a very emotional experience for him to see their names etched on the Vietnam Memorial a few years ago. Turns out the brand new transmission (that, as I understand it, had just replaced the old transmission that was dropped while being serviced) seized in flight and the chopper crashed killing all onboard.

I had never realized how lucky he was to have avoided being on that helicopter when it crashed. He had requested ground duties because his time was short, but didn’t expect his request to be approved as it generally wasn’t. It was. He was on the first flight testing the new transmission and there were no problems. He would have been on the fateful flight, but they were transporting dignitaries and there was no room for him since he was no longer technically part of that aircrew.

That is only one of the several brushes with death my dad has had. We are so very lucky to have him still.

My grandfather was a Marine stationed in the Pacific theatre in WWII. I don’t remember what he did but he met my grandmother in Long Beach, CA when she was working in the shipyards doing some type of “Rosie the Riveter” work. Theirs’ is a classic '40s tale of wartime romance, the stories of which I never tired of hearing when I was young. Hadn’t thought of that in quite some time.

I also had two great-uncles on my father’s side who fought in Europe in WWII. Their stories were included in a recent WWII documentary and the fact of their Jewish heritage made for significant emotional impact.

100

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.