Like many Londoners, my mother hid in the underground tunnels during WWII (she was a child). Eventually her family was split up and all of the children were sent out to the countryside with various relatives to keep them safe from the falling bombs.
My father was a medic in the Korean war.
My paternal grandfather was a bomber pilot in the Pacific in WWII.
Maternal grandfather was stateside as a mechanic.
Dad managed to avoid Vietnam by being in school, getting married, having me and then little sis at exactly the right times to miss the draft.
Favorite Uncle was MACV, then 1st Air Cav in Vietnam. He won’t visit the memorial and won’t watch any Vietnam related movies/documentaries, etc. He told me not long ago that only in the last ten years has he not woken my Aunt up by throwing her off the bed and holding her down while whispering loudly, “STAY DOWN STAY DOWN STAY DOWN” at least once or twice per year. That’s down from 2 or 3 times per week. He has no desire to stir all that up again. Other than that, he has never given any details other than rank, and general areas (central highlands, “up north”, etc.) and the fact that he took shrapnel at LZ XRay which got him the hell out of there and home.
Other two uncles finished basic training one week before the Paris accord and remained stateside until discharged.
Dad was a IP during WW2. He taught farm boys how to jockey a B-26 across the skies. Never left the continental US.
My father had enlisted in the infantry in 1940 and served one year. He was back in the private sector when war broke out, so rather than be drafted back into the infantry, he quickly enlisted in the Merchant Marine, where he served in the Pacific theater on a variety of Liberty ships. He started out in the engine crew (“black gang”, I presume because they were covered in oil), and by dint of study worked his way up to Jr Engineer by the end of the war.
His father served in WWI in Europe as a mule team driver (kind of ironic, considering our family name can be translated roughly as “Teamster”).
My mother graduated from high school in 1942, and as far as I know did not participate in the military at all.
Roddy
During World War II, both of my parents were very active with neighborhood “victory” gardens, getting people to grow as many of their own vegetables as possible, to free up funds for the war.
And I learned only recently that my father had a job inspecting airplanes . . . something of which, in any other context, he would be totally ignorant.
WW2
Mom was in High School. Dad was a radioman in the Pacific, US Navy.
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My dad was too young for both WWII and Korea and because of me got a deferment for Vietnam.
My father in law served as a helicopter radioman in Nam. One day his CO asked him to switch seats as the CO wanted a better position to take some pics. A few seconds later a round came through the floor and killed the guy.
Father in law doesn’t talk about it and I won’t ask.
My father was in the U.S. Navy, and was a radioman. The closest he came to combat was the time he and a friend spotted a mine floating by their ship.
Mom was too young to serve, but she lived on a farm, and the Army stored munitions there.
World War 2, my biological father was only a young teenager, my mother was born in 1943.
My grandfather on my mother’s side served in Anzio Beach, Italy and Ethiopia. He captured a Nazi flag and an Italian General’s silver spurs.
My ex husband’s paternal grandfather served in the Pacific theatre and was involved in bombing missions over Nagasaki. His paternal grandmother worked in a uniform factory.
My stepgrandparents both worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard…we have their pins, identification badges, and work cards…very neat.
I also remember talking with an ex-boyfriend’s mom. She worked at a lifeboat factory in PA. She said, on V-J day, all of the sudden, after hearing the factory going 24-7, everything went completely silent. Then the announcement came over the PA system that Japan surrendered and the war was over. She said that the whole factory erupted in cheers and just happiness…I get goosebumps thinking about it…
My mom lived in San Francisco and was an arc welder on the Liberty ships. She was tiny, 5’2" and they used to have her go down into the false bottom of the ship. She also drove a Greyhound bus at some point.
My dad joined the Navy at 18, right out of high school. He was a gunner’s mate.
My dad was in the last detachment of the U. S. Cavalry before it mechanized. He was a tank commander during the Battle of the Bulge. His tank was hit by an 88mm shell and if the shell had blown up a few inches higher on the tank facing, I wouldn’t be typing this today.
My Dad was a foot soldier at the tail end of WWII (17ish) and was called up to fight in Korea too. He hated all of it and offered my older bro a trip to Canada if his number came up low during the Vietnam thing. My Mom was a nun.
My father skipped Vietnam on account of a messed-up ankle, but both my grandfathers served - my maternal grandfather was a Navy Corpsman in Korea, and my paternal grandfather was infantry in WWII (i’m not sure of which theater/s he was in, though.)
I also had an ancestor who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, and bungled an attempted sneak attack on a Union encampment by dropping his rifle which caused it to misfire and wake up the would-be victims.
Dad was a U.S. Navy “SeeBee” from mid-'43 to late-'45, following behind the front lines in the island-hopping Pacific Theater. He built things like runways, barracks, post offices, and rec centers, and was otherwise a “cork.”
He went back in the Navy during Korea, but was stationed at Lambert N.A.S. (St. Louis, MO) as a crash-crew firefighter.
The only “action” he saw was un unidentified aircraft did a harbor overflight (on one of the Pacific Islands, I forget which) while they were offloading a munitions ship in the dark hours of the AM. The air raid siren went off right when the plane was overhead, so there was no time to get to cover. But the plane flew on, and nothing happened.
My husband served on the USS Saratoga. He was the catapult operater, which means he decided when all was clear to okay the planes taking off from the ship and threw the switch.
My parents, both mother and father, I guess during WWII? worked in Oak Ridge TN where, apparently, the atomic bomb was helping to be develped. I still have my mother’s certificate of appreciation. And the family legend goes that at one point she thought my father was cheating on her: turned out he was working after hours for the government.
Kevbo… I read with interest your post… my father also traveled to, and marched across, North Africa (Army). He too crossed to Italy. It was there, at a river crossing, where the man two places ahead of him inthe line stepped on a land mine. He and the other soldier in front of my dad were killed. My father took shrapnel in his right should, neck and eye. He remembers flipping backwards through the air. Evac’d, discharged, Purple Heart.
Great story too, about how he met my mother…but that’s for another post.
“All gave some, some gave all”.
Lessee…
My maternal grandfather was a Hungarian bureaucrat who escaped Budapest with his family just ahead of the Russians arriving in 1944.
My uncle (father’s brother) was on a submarine in WWII but I don’t know the details as he didn’t like to talk about it.
My father (who was younger than my uncle) was Machinist’s Mate on an LSD during the latter part of the Korean War, which he spent valiantly defending the Mediterranean against Chinese invasion. He was involved in the relief effort in Cephalonia following the 1953 earthquake.
My father-in-law was career Army and did two go-rounds in Vietnam*; he’s got a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and an assortment of other chest jinglies.
I also have a friend who was in Gulf War I and a nephew doing Marine training who thus far seems unlikely to go to Afghanistan (fingers crossed). Man, we have a lot of wars.
*and places which were not, strictly speaking, Vietnam, although even now he’s a bit cagey about that.
My paternal grandfather served very briefly in the US Army in WWI until they figured out he wasn’t a citizen and let him out. My dad enlisted in 1951, but never got further west than San Diego, where he was assigned to the USMC recruit depot in the logistics group. Mom worked for a defense contractor till she got pregnant with me.
I enlisted in 1973 - the last gasps of Vietnam - but in those days, women’s roles were just started to expand, and most definitely didn’t include sea duty or anything combat related. I was assigned to VS-41 at Naval Air Station North Island where I trained the guys who would go to sea. We had the then brand-new S-3A Viking and I taught maintenance and repair of the communications and navigation systems. I guess I was also a Cold Warrior, since I stayed in till '84.
One of my two male cousins was in 'nam in the Air Force. A couple of my older uncles fought in WWII - I know one was a Seabee. No other women in the family served. My daughter talked about joining the Navy, but I think it was just to get away from the guy she eventually divorced.
My father was drafted into the army during the Korean war. He wanted to be a radio repair tech, but was colorblind, so he wasn’t eligible. (Back when resisters were color coded. . .)
He become a typist and served his time in Yuma Arizona. The worst hardship he had was when he would forget to put sun screen on his face and would get a burn.
My ex-wife’s parents were still kids during WWII, both lived in Tokyo and survived the firebombing. ex-MIL lived in an area which was bombed on the initial night. She and her family fled in one direction, their neighbors in another. They wound up safe and the neighbors killed. ex-FIL grew up in a different area and they were bombed another night. They were in a dugout shelter in the back yard and an unexploded napalm bomb came through the shelter roof. As the oldest son, he grabbed it and threw it out into the street where it blew up.
Dad was in the Navy as a Radioman in the fifties. Never patrolled near Korea.
He switched to the Air Force in the late fifties. Retrained in Air Craft instruments. He was a supervisor Tech Sgt. at one of the Air Forces shops that had a clean-room for repairing them.
He got sent to Viet Nam in 66-67. Served at Da Nang and Nha Trang Air Bases. He got a lot of exposure to Agent Orange. He told me that Planes had that stuff dripping of them after missions. They had dad climbing in/out of planes working on the instruments and switching them out. He made Master Sgt. and retired in 73.
Starting in the mid 80’s dad was in several VA programs studying Agent Orange’s effects. His immune system was messed up and he had loss of feeling/nerve damage in his feet. It gradually got worse as the years went by.