Veteran's Day was November 11 but I thought it needed a little more attention here. According to wikipedia: Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. At the urging of major U.S. veteran organizations, Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954. So there's your history factoid for the day. Did any of you idiots serve? Have a (National Chicken Soup for the Soul) heartwarming story about a close family member who was a vet? It is also National 'the works' Pizza Day, which I can totally get behind, and might have to get some dough started for tonight. Happy Friday, idiots. Y'all be good.
Two cousins did stints in the Marines, Grandfather did two years in Germany 45-46, second cousin was a pilot for the Blue Angels. Fun fact, being in the Blue Angels does not, in fact, qualify you to fly rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong. At least as a civilian, cousin drives long haul trucks now, none of those flight hours transfer out when you leave the military. I looked at the Air Force after high school, the whole recruitment process reminded me of a MLM salesman, ended up going to trade school instead. In my cousins time in Marine boot camp one guy purposely broke both his legs jumping off something he shouldn’t have in an attempt to get kicked out. The Marines put him in the hospital and waited for his legs to heal and then sent him back through, he graduated the second time around.
One grandfather was in the Philippines, the other fought in the Battle of the Bulge and a few other major encounters. My grandfather’s brother was killed at Omaha Beach. I heard enough stories as a kid that I passed on signing up to go to Afghanistan or Iraq.
One grandfather was in the Army in the European theater (I'm not sure if he participated in D-Day or arrived shortly thereafter) and the other spent the war doing research for the Navy. The one in the Navy was the one who came out of the war with a permanent disability. Ironic.
Pretty much all of my grandparents. My mom's mom was a secretary in the military and her father was a pilot of a Spitfire. He got shot down over the Pacific theatre and lost a lung for his troubles. Dad's mom was a nurse. His dad was a tail gunner in a Lancaster for the RAF (which made no sense, given that he was 6'4"), and his squad was one of those tasked with carrying a German-speaking allied soldier to scramble the enemy's communications. They ran daylight missions and on several occasions dropped food to the Dutch. My father remembers when he was a child, his parents bought a farm in Wanstead (an area known for having a high Dutch population in southern Ontario). The land itself had been ill-maintained and was greatly overgrown when his dad took possession. My dad says he has a clear memory of a local Dutch farmer walking up their driveway, unasked, with all of his sons behind him. They immediately got to work and cleared the land by hand with scythes, then left quietly. Evidently they had learned that my grandfather was one of the soldiers that had kept their family fed and alive during the occupation. What's really interesting and helpful now is to see guys like Jocko or Andy Stumpf have their contemporaries on to talk about their lived war experience. My experience with veterans who actually saw war is that they would never talk about it. In my grandfather's case, the only time I ever heard him mention the war as it affected him personally is when we were touring a Lancaster in Nanton outside of Calgary. I think the podcasts they produce are really important documents for outsiders to try and understand the war and the cost it exacts. What's everyone doing this weekend? Anyone else tackling some renovation work? I've been without a kitchen sink for three weeks now and I'm over it.
My grandfather was in WWII, Pacific Theater. He was a Marine, and was a weatherman in Bougainville. He had some illness that put him in the infirmary, and ended up being sedated. When he woke up, his unit had been shipped out without him to Guadalcanal. However, I never knew him - he died of a heart attack in 1969. I hear he was a funny guy, had a real goofy side to him - but also a real hardass. The big story from my dad was that he would make you clean your plate at dinner, and if you wouldn't finish your food, he would quite literally hold you down and force it into your mouth.
My grandfather on my mom's side was a part of a howitzer team and was in europe in 44 and 45 i believe. My grandfather(german) on my dad's side was a radio operator for the allies in england during the war.
Both my grandfathers stormed Juneau Beach on D-Day. One was in the Air Force and was in four plane crashes, the other was infantry and killed at least a dozen Germans. Ten of them within three seconds. I mean, that is as surreal as it gets. To just have an entire generation of grandfathers who were hard-boiled, tormented killers. That’s why nobody stopped them from being rude or racist in public when they got old, they ACTUALLY gave zero fucks for good reasons. Both my grandfathers were great to me, but the Air Force one was an alcoholic and beat my father his entire childhood. Sometimes in front of house guests. Greatest generation. Terrible parents.
would it surprise you to learn that my broken fibula was actually the first bone I’d broken below my waist that I know of?
My maternal grandfather was in the Marines but was injured in a non-combat situation if some kind. Instead of a medical discharge he opted for honorable because it sounded more, well, honorable. My paternal grandfather was in the Navy and served in the South Pacific in WW2. He died in the late 70’s so I only have vague memories of him. Not even my Dad knew what he’d done until Grandma died back in 2012 and he was going through her papers. The ship he was on was right in the thick of things according to all the citations listed. I think it bothered Dad to not have a clue about what his father did. But then I guess Grandpa could be a real SOB so here was a lot more at play there. I never served, but looking back I wish I’d done a 2 year stint. I think it would have been a good life experience.
On my mom's side, I had a great uncle that was killed at Pearl Harbor, my grandfather spent the most of the war trying to join the Navy, but kept getting medically disqualified until mid '45...was in basic when WW2 ended, but stayed in through the Korean War. He was on the New Jersey and during a shore bombardment the ship was hit by counter battery fire...no danger to him, but it did kill a few of his fellow sailors. On dad's side, one of my great uncles drove a truck in Patton's Army and two uncles were old enough to see WW2, one was a cartographer in the Army Air Forces in Italy, the other was a gunner/flight engineer on Navy subhunters in the Atlantic. He stayed in the Navy til the mid 50s. Dad was in the National guard and then switched to the AF Reserves until he retired. I did ten years in the AF as an analyst. I was in training on 9/11, then went to a fighter wing, until I was essentially traded to the Marines for a year to do counter IED work in Iraq. After that, I was lucky enough to work in one of the few aircrew positions for my career track. After that, over half of my ten years were deployed, so I decided to get out...only to end up in Afghanistan as a contractor for a few years.
My paternal grandfather was a Marine who fought in the south Pacific in World War II. He was my last living grandparent, and passed away last June a few weeks before his 98th birthday. He outlived my dad, too. My grandfather was a very easygoing guy, but he spent his whole life refusing to buy Japanese products. My maternal grandfather served in the Air Force throughout the Cold War. I don't remember what exactly he did, but my mom had to move around a lot when she was growing up. They even lived on Okinawa for a few years when she was a kid.
My brother keeps sending me pictures of his shit. Aside from sending him retaliatory pictures of my shit, which apparently he finds funny, can anyone think of a better way to get back at him for these appetite ruining texts?