My father was in the European Theater in WWII, landed DDay +6, 2 Purple Hearts and a Silver Star as an Infantryman. Carried a BAR most of the time.
WWII: Mom & Dad both pre-teens. Scouting, scrap drives, fat drives.
Cold War: Mom & dad both with US Naval Photo Center, 1957-'61, making training films & closed-circuit TV.
My dad is mostly deaf in one ear from a round Clothahump’s father fired from his tank… he said it was his most terrifying experience, as he was totally deaf for several days afterwards during very active combat.
One grandfather served as a medic in WWI (I believe he was a pacifist), the other served on a ‘sub chaser’ that never saw a sub.
My dad signed up in May 1945 and was training to be a radio operator in the Pacific Fleet when the war ended. He got out of the Navy 18 months later.
My mom was still in high school when the war ended.
The only relative that I know served in the military was a multiple-great-grandfather that served as Brigade Surgeon on Nelson’s Victory. My parents were too young for WWII and Australian citizens during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.
Mom was in the Boston area in high school during WW2, which her dad, my grandfather, was a captain in the Seabees. My Dad lied about his age and enlisted at age 17. Apparently nobody, including the US Army, was looking too hard at BCs back then. My uncle, Dad’s fraternal twin, having a little more sense than his brother, waited a month or so longer until he was 18 and enlisted in the Navy.
Uncle had a relatively uneventful hitch in the Navy, but dear old dad ended up a sergeant at age 17, and in charge of his own platoon under Patton’s Third Army about a year later after his looey was killed. Being the 3rd Army, those of you know your history know where it was during the winter of 1944/45: the Battle of the Bulge, in which he damn near died. In fact, Graves Registration arrived to collect him - and a few others, thinking he was dead – and he moaned.
For managing to survive that hell on earth, he got a free trip to Paris for medical care (frozen feet) - and a Bronze Star.
My grandfather was in the US Navy- on leave he walked up to a munitions plant in Iowa and walked directly up to a girl and said, “I have your picture in my wallet.” He had been bunking with her brother, and did, in fact. It was enough to win her heart, and that was my grandmother, who just died this year, after pining for him for the last twenty years. He died at sixty-six, she at eighty-six.
My father said he was drafted as he expected when he didn’t try to extend his college studies, as he knew that even with financial assistance from my uncles, he wasn’t going to make it.
He was drafted and sent to Kentucky to study cryptanalysis, which fueled his interest in math for life- but when his unit landed in Saigon, their destination unit was, “So secret it didn’t exist.” Meaning, no one could tell them where to go, and there was no such place. He spent an hour on the ground in Saigon before they shipped him to Thailand, where he spent the war in community service projects, “scared shitless, without even a sidearm,” for four years.
He never said a word about his wartime service except to mention guilt over having been forced to go, until he met my then-wife. He told us all that at that point.
My maternal Grandfather worked for Goodyear and was part of the design team for the USS Akron and Macon airships (somewhere I still have a leftover scrap of the skin used in the building of the Akron) and for the self-sealing fuel tank liners used in later WW2 planes.
My dad served in between Korea and Vietnam and spent his time in Germany as part of an optics repair detail on a base that really had no optics to be repaired, so they spent most of thier time playing cards and finding new and different ways to repair the crosshair sights on a POS set of Japanese binoculars that the base commander had taken off a Japanese officer during WW2.
I forgot to tell the story about mother, who was in nursing school at Massachusetts General Hospital in WWII. There were fears of air raids, so there was a regular duty each nurse had to take turns performing. They had to go up on the roof with a bucket of sand and a bucket of water, and watch for bombs. They were told that if a bomb fell on the roof, they were supposed to pour the sand on it, followed by the water.
I guess none of the nurses had the guts to tell their supervisor that if a bomb fell on the hospital, it would explode in the basement.
During WWII my dad served with the Army Air Force in the South Pacific as a mechanic. He volunteered and served for four years until the war ended. He never talked about the war until the last year he was alive.
Mom stayed home and taught school. Her sister taught Navy men how to fly airplanes in Texas and her brother served in North Africa.
One grandfather was in the Canadian Infantry that stormed Juno beach on D-Day. My other Grandfather was a navigator in Lancasters.
Thanks Grandpas !!!
My dad was Airforce and worked on developing the delivery systems for Agent Orange. He was raised on a farm, and this was just the same stuff they used on the farm all the time, so they weren’t really afraid of the stuff. He tells stories of hanging part way out the back of an airplane in flight, fiddling with the sprayers, and getting a face full of the stuff.
Mom was a civilian, but worked calculating missile trajectories, mostly Cold War related, I believe.
Paternal grandfather was a second lieutenant in the Sherwood Foresters during WWI, and was at the Somme.
Maternal grandfather served in WWII in the South African forces in North Africa, I’m not sure in what capacity.
(Paternal grandfather was almost 60 when my father was born, hence the age difference.)
Dad: WWII Airborne, later (because he was fluent) interrogated German officers.
Mom: Worked in a munitions factory in West Germany. Helped make bombs to defeat the allies.
And please don’t give me any shit over it, okay? A LOT of young girls ran away from home (my mother from East Germany) and that’s the only work they could find. Well, there WAS one other type of work, but she wouldn’t do that.
I know: Weird how they found each other and had me, right? They met shortly after the war in a dance club and he wowed her with his moves, or so I’m told. 
Q
My dad and his brothers signed up during the Depression for the free food, clothing and money to send home. They all stayed for the duration.
My eldest uncle was a Marine. He was at Pearl Harbor for the battle, and I’m sure that he fought in other battles.
The first husband of my second oldest aunt was a tanker and died in the Battle of the Bulge.
Dad was a supply sargeant and spent most of the war stationed on Guam.
I think that his next two younger brothers were in the Navy. One of them may have been in the Army.
The youngest of the sons decided to prove himself to his big brothers. He got his parents’ permission to join the Marines and ended up fighting at Iwo Jima (Forty years later, Dad still teased him, saying that the Marines made the kid stay in the boat.) He re-upped for Korea and was stationed in Japan for Vietnam.
My father was in the army in WWII “The Big One” as Archie Bunker used to say. Landed in France some six weeks after D-Day. Fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Used to always say forget that shit you see in “Patton” about him praying and getting good weather…it snowed EVERY day. In August 1945 he was in San Diego training for the invasion of Japan. Always grateful for Truman dropping the A Bombs and saving his life.
My mother (they didn’t know each other then) arrived in Washington DC on June 6, 1944 and worked in Graves Registry for Department of War.
Sneaky-Pete kinda stuff. As a civilian.
He came back from Southeast Asia with a lot of scars, and even more nightmares. Every now and again, something slips out, and those little bits are enough to give me nightmares.
During WWII, Korea and the first part of Viet Nam my Dad was in the Army Air Corps/Air Force in bomb disposal, and my Mom was in the Army Corps of Engineers (WWII & Korea only), designing . . . systems.
During the same period my Aunt Mary was in the Air Force but I’m not sure what she did (other than meet my Dad and introduce him to my Mom - thanks Aunt Mary!). My Uncle Bud was an infantryman during WWII and was in the D Day invasion. Uncle Ed was a B-17 waist gunner stationed in England.
My grandfather-in-law was an Army lieutenant who landed at Normandy for D Day, fought his way inland and was killed a month later.
RIP and thanks you guys.
My uncle was a PT Boat commander in the South Pacific, his dad, my grandfather, was a Navy Supply Officer, worst exposure was avoiding German wolfpack subs transiting the Atlantic. My dad joined the Marines and missed Korea due to the unit to which he was assigned, but was Battalion XO of 1st Battalion, 9th Marines in Vietnam (Khe Sahn). He and the Sgt Maj had a bottle of good booze they said they’d open if it got really bad. They ended up leaving it there. He did three tours there. My mom worked for the CIA during the Cold War, where she met my dad, who was doing security stuff at Fort Meade at the time.
I did Gulf War, Episode One in direct support of the 2nd Marine Division.
My dad was in the Dutch underground in WW II. The only story about it that I recall is an episode where he’s training others in firearms use and a gun accidently went off resulting in all those present scampering to get the hell out of there.