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Soldiers from your famlly

Discussion in 'Living History' started by Major Hubal, Sep 17, 2008.

  1. von Poop

    von Poop Waspish

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    I think that may be my primary problem with it stefan. 'Died' is almost euphemistic for what actually happened. 'killed' has a sharper edge, and I'd always hope people had a more forceful account of the realities of a serious situation.
    To be honest, 'passed over', 'passed away' etc. are equally uncomfortable for me. I understand why euphemisms about death exist, but still think they're a slightly odd avoidance of reality. My Grandad, hasn't 'gone to join the quoir invisible', he's dead.

    Having said that, I contradict myself in that I think 'fallen' or 'fell' is entirely appropriate terminology for military death, and in many ways that's as euphemistic as you can get. But I suppose it's also acquired almost ritualistic/ceremonial overtones which maybe enhance the gravity of a loss without diminishing or casualising it in any way.

    ~A
     
  2. Stefan

    Stefan Cavalry Rupert

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    Agreed entirely, I dislike euphamisms about death because they feel like you are hiding from what has happenned and to me that feels wrong. That said, 'to fall' is an interesting one. As you say it seems more ceremonial. I think I'd go for talking about 'the fallen' but to describe a man as 'falling' would be weird to me.
     
  3. mac9990

    mac9990 recruit

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    Two great uncles(brothers) were Staff sergeants in the Army, one killed on Leyte with the 32nd Infantry Division, his brother wounded in Germany with the 95th Division.

    My Wifes Uncles, one a PVT was wounded with the 41st Division in New Guinea, one a Sergeant in the Army Engineers in Burma.

    Another Great Uncle was a B-17 Pilot in Europe.

    My Sisters 3rd Husband was a paratrooper in New Guinea and the Phillipines 11th Airborne.

    My Cousin was a Sergeant in the Army 1980-84

    I am Retired from the Army, SFC 1976-96 Germany Korea, California, Texas, Louisiana

    My Nephew Marine Corps Reserve, his father was a Navy Seal who abandoned him and his sister.

    Another Nephew a Marine Corps Bootstrap Captain, Currently serving

    Another Nephew 4 Years enlisted, 4 Officer with the Army Intelligence

    My Dad served 22 Years in the Navy, Aviation Gunner and Yeoman

    My Son is currently serving with the 2nd ID in Afghanistan, Infantry
     
  4. USMCPrice

    USMCPrice Idiot at Large

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    Whew, some impressive stuff.:eek:

    Me, I know mine as far back as the War of Northern Aggression on my dad's side, not much on my mom's side.

    --My great grandfather's dad served in the 39th Georgia CSA with his 4 brothers. He was captured at Vicksburg (along with at least one brother). Was paroled, and recaptured, by General Thomas' Federal troops, on his way home. They were moving towards Chickamauga immediately preceeding that battle. He was sent to a northern POW camp where he was given the option to join the Federal Cavalry and be sent out west to fight indians. He took the option and his brothers never forgave him.
    --My greatgrandfather did not serve, he worked for the railroad and during WWI his occupation disqualified him for military service.
    --His brother, Roy, served as a Marine in WWI and died from the after effects of poison gas in 1928.
    --My grandmother (paternal) did not serve but three of her four brothers did:
    --Horace, a Marine Raider, fought in the Solomons, when the Raiders were reorganized into the new 4th Marines he went with them. Fought at Guam. When the Japanese overran the Marine lines during a big banzai charge, he was trapped behind enemy lines. He sought refuge in a cave with the Japanese right outside. They occasionally entered his cave and he killed them. Sometime during the night, hiding in the cave with his dead foes he had a mental breakdown. When the Marines counter-attacked and restored their lines he was found and evacuated to Balboa Naval Hospital where he spent the rest of the war. He lived into his eighties, raised a family and was a successful businessman in Houston, he was never again totally right. I remember as a kid, staying at my great-grandparents farm, being warned not to pass his door at night he'd be out of the rack and have his hands on you before he realized what he was doing.
    --CV he served with a National Guard Artillery Unit on New Guinea from 1943 to wars end. (He was my favorite)
    --Roy, named after my great-grandfathers brother, served with Patton's 3rd Army.
    --My grandfather (paternal), immigrated from Canada in the 20's. Don't know much about that branch of the family tree but he served in the Pacific as a Machinists mate on an LST for the duration.

    --My father, private to major (Lt. Col. upon retirement), career Marine Corps. Three tours in Vietnam.
    --Uncle Charlie (fathers brother) U.S. Marine Cpl, 1st Marine Division, Pusan, Inchon, Seoul and Chosin Reservoir. When my dad was serving as an advisor to the Korean Marines, he was a Captain at the time, he represented the United States at a 20th anniversary commemoration of the Inchon Landing because his brother had participated. I have a cool picture of it, I'll post when I get my scanner fixed.
    Defense.gov News Article: Marine Commandant Lauds 'Chosin Few'
    --Uncle J.D. (father's brother) US Navy submariner 1948 to 1952.

    --Me USMC and US Army (18d).
    --Brother USMC

    --Sons, both Marines, oldest one now in Marine Corps Reserve finishing up his degree (with Honors) in History (ancient Roman).

    My wife:
    --Father and uncle (her fathers brother) served pre-WWII in 6th US Cavalry (horse). Went through the conversion to mechanized and served for duration of WWII.
    from Wikipedia:
    Finally in July 1944, (D+33) the unit set sail across the English Channel to land at Utah Beach (Sainte-Mère-Église, France). Throughout WWII, the Sixth was part of most of the major campaigns, some of which included "Task Force Polk," the engagement in the Ardennes, and the Battle of the Bulge. It was also responsible for the screening and protection of the corps in the Bastogne area, defending the Our River, breaching the Siegfried Line, and the big job of crossing the Rhine River and the drive to the east.
    --Her brother, USMC Cpl. While stationed in Iceland he noticed three Boy Scouts that had been swept out to sea on a raft. He summoned help then swam out to assist them. Despite the extremely cold water and exertion, he managed to get all on board a rescue helicopter before he himself drowned. RIP Rodney.
     
  5. sonofacameron

    sonofacameron Member

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    My Father served 1939 - 1946 with Queens Own Cameron Highlanders and fought from North Africa Feb 42 to Bremerhaven, Germany 1945.
    My Father-in-Law with the Royal Artillery 1938 - 1946. Was already in France at outbreak of war and was underage when evacuated from Dunkirk. Posted to Burma as a bombadier on 'Priests', 105 MM self propelled guns. Attached my late Father with Montgomery and My Late Father-in-Law somewhere in Middle East
     

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  6. turkishwolf

    turkishwolf Childish Member

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    In turkey all healthy men soldier.
    Coz we have to serving to army for a time.
    I have been a military police sergeant in Turkish Army for a 6 months.
    this time depends on education diploma.
    But if you ask about any war?
    My few relatives served in Turkish-Rum war in 1974.
    And my big big grandfather served in Ottoman Russian war in 1877/1878.
     
  7. Lady Prime

    Lady Prime Member

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    Fraternal grandfather-World War 2 worked with Dwight D. Eisenhower and under General Patton-US ARMY

    Brother-Desert Storm/Desert Shield-USMC MP

    Great Great Great Great Uncle-General of Armed Forces, Confederate Army-US Civil War

    Probably more but I have to look in my family tree...
     
  8. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WWII Veteran

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    I come from a large family. My parents, of Blessed Memory, were Joe and Fanny Goldstein and when war broke out on September 3rd 1939 the family was based in Boreham Street, Bethnal Green in the East End of London.

    Head of the family in every sense was Dad, otherwise known as Joe, Mr.G. or the Guvnor.
    When war broke out he was aged 56.
    Mum, known as Fanny, or Faigele was 55
    Annie , the oldest daughter, was 31
    Lou, the oldest son, was 30
    Jack, next in line, was 27
    Esther was aged 26
    Mossy, one of twins was 23
    as was
    Gertie, his twin
    Polly was aged 22
    Mick was aged 19
    Debbie was aged 18
    Ronnie was 16
    and
    Jean was aged 9

    By 1944 all the boys were in the forces as detailed below

    Lou was a Lance Corporal in the Royal Army Service Corps from 1941 to 1946

    Jack volunteered for the RAF in January 1944 and served in 166 Bomber
    Squadron at Kirmington in Humberside. As a Sgt.Air Gunner he flew on fifteen operations over Germany and was tragically Killed in Action over Nuremberg on the 16th March 1945.

    Mossy was a Corporal PT Instructor in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps and stationed in the UK between 1940 and 1946.

    Mick enlisted on 24th July 1940, initially served with the Royal Fusiliers and subsequently became a Sergeant Major in the Royal Artillery. He volunteered for the Jewish Brigade, served with them in Italy and was de-mobbed in January 1947.

    Ron, that’s me, was called up in October 1942 serving firstly as a Wireless Operator in Light Ack Ack in the UK, North Africa, Sicily and Italy and was later re-trained as a Loader/Operator. He finished the war with the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars and was demobbed a Corporal in March 1947.

    In addition to the boys all serving, Esther, Gertie and Debbie all had husbands in the Forces and Polly was in the Land Army.

    Updates:
    1. By the time that this website became a 'sealed' archive in January 2006 and following on the passing of his much loved brother Mick in November 2005, Ron was the sole surviving brother.

    2. Jack's son Michael has written movingly about his father in a series of articles which can be found on the BBC WW2 Peoples War Archives at U2883517
     

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  9. colletorww2

    colletorww2 Ace

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    I am still doing research on my family, but i know this so far:

    Grandfather(My mother's side): Served in the Norwegian Merchant Marine, no more info found.
    Grandmother's Brother(My mother's side): Able seaman in the Norwegian Merchant Marine, K.I.A 11. March 1943
    Grandfather(My father's side): Served in the army mid 1935, still uncertain what he did during the war.
     
  10. Victor Gomez

    Victor Gomez Ace

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    I am so impressed with the service families that have posted so far. I guess I like this forum as it is somewhat a continuation for me of something I used to have, but as time goes by, gets taken away. I am speaking of the tales I was raised hearing from my relatives of their stories of war. Now my uncles and dad are gone so I turn to this forum to fill those gaps. My grandfather served in WWI but I do not know where or many details. On my Dad's side his two brothers served in WWII, one at Battle of the Bulge, and one on a ship in the pacific that was hit by Kamikaze. He wasn't hurt. He was the radioman. The one at Battle of the Bulge was wounded but from friendly fire. My Dad was in the Pacific but mostly after most of the action as clean up operations and always impressed upon us how fortunate he was not to have ever been injured or hurt. He was headed for Japan invasion when the Bomb was dropped, he says that probably saved his life. He did get about every form of jungle diseases while in the Philipines however. Some things he saw we could not get him to talk about. He did describe aircraft mid air collisions he witnessed, sad because they happened after long missions. Another younger uncle served many years in the Air Force flying in the B-52's and told me his job was arming the nukes. That was during the Cold War. He said it was stressful as he was never told if it was an exercise or the real thing, he just did his job when ordered. I think so many Cold War veterans had this kind of stress and were hardly ever recognized for it. My next younger brother was on a nuke research submarine. I was not in the military but cousins served in Viet Nam on ships and infantry and were decorated. My nephews have served in Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan. I also must mention cousins that have served there as well and one who I think is on his 6th or 7th deployment to Afghanistan. My brother-in-law is retired Air Force but still working as a nurse at Veterans hospital. When I mention cousins there are too many to really list in military service as it is pretty much family tradition in their family even more so than mine. I have to add that cousins that were in service during Viet Nam were deployed to our munitions manufacturing to improve our failing armaments and eventually became contractors doing quality control to get our weapons dependable and corrected for our troops that were experiencing failures. In later years they were involved in demilling of mines and ordinance in Nevada. I did some contract work in demilling as well but was not trained by them. As we became involved in Iraq most money for this dried up and the last of many skilled demllers were laid off. Now ordinance knowledge is getting rare to find amongst our troops and military and contractors. We need them badly and many are wounded taking apart the IED's now. I so admire the ones that do this and suffer each time I hear of the casualties. These soldiers don't just have to know our ordinance, they have to know for example Red Chinese ordinance to disarm. There is no end to how they can create tricks to prevent disarmament of a device so they are so brave to continue doing this job. Now relatives on my mom side, two of her brothers served, one in the Marines and one in the air force in the Cold War years. They didn't live close by so I heard less stories from them. Perhaps now you can figure why I find my way back to this forum pretty often.
     
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  11. 4th wilts

    4th wilts Member

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    I started reading my great-granddads diary from the east African campaign in the great war,I have only read a few pages,I can't read it anymore,it makes me feel sick.truly awful stinking hell .I shall never read anymore!!!. :-(
     
  12. Gebirgsjaeger

    Gebirgsjaeger Ace

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    That was a really hard way to make war. My granddad´s sister lived in former "Deutsch Südwest Africa" and it must´ve been like hell during the war against the natives.
     
  13. SarahYoo

    SarahYoo recruit

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    My great grandfather was a Gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery in WW1, seeing action in Belgium and Italy.

    His son, my Grandfather, was an A/Sgt in the Royal Army Medical Corp and saw action in Burma when with the 49 WA General Hospital.

    My husband is currently serving in the RAF, and has been for the past 20 years.

    I'm a proud military wife, and extremely grateful to both my husband, my grandpa and great grandpa for all they have sacrificed in their service.
     
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  14. qtmama

    qtmama Member

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    My father in law was in WW2 aswellas my mother in law´s brothers, but I have´nt got any details yet.
    I recently found relatives in the U.S (though genealogy) that has served in WW1, Korean War and WW2. Some of them are burried at veteran gravesites.
     
  15. RabidAlien

    RabidAlien Ace

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    I can't trace back very far, but here's my family's service:

    Grandfather was in 15th Air Force during WW2, prop mechanic on B-24s
    Wife's grandfather was Navy during WW2, mechanic for SBD's on carriers in the Pacific.
    My father was Air Force security police during Vietnam, served some time and saw some limited action; transferred to lab tech and spent the rest of his 22 years in the medical field.
    Wife's father joined the Army, volunteered for some sort of chemical engineering tests, and was released from the Army after 2 years. He never really spoke of it, I don't think it was much of a priority in his life, just a 2-year hitch that he didn't care much about.
    Had a cousin go through Air Force bootcamp, then got dishonorably discharged during his A-school (roommate was dealing pot, he didn't turn his roomie in so was booted for "aiding and abetting" or something similar)
    Brother is career Army, criminal investigations. Served in S. Korea, Germany, and now Italy, has been to Iraq/Afghanistan for several tours, including the occasional "don't send me any mail or email until you hear from me again, and don't bother to ask where I'm going or why my clothes are full of sand/lead" trips. We didn't ask.
    I went into the Navy in 92, somehow found myself in the nuclear power field as an electrician's mate (hated math/physics/chemistry during school...still do), and in a fit of insanity volunteered for submarine duty. Which turned out to be good, because you have to be insane to fit in on subs. At least that's what the voices in my head tell me.
     
  16. Dauntless

    Dauntless Member

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    Great great great grandfather and his son served in the Civil War

    Grandfather in WW I

    Father in WW2 (Army)

    Myself in the Cold War 1976-1987 USMC

    Brother in Air Force 1981-2002

    Niece in US Army since 2003

    Her son in USMC since 2010
     
  17. Chef des Todes

    Chef des Todes Flight Medic

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    As far as i know.
    American Rev- Was under crownwalace, and was captured twice, and was head of some major battle
    Civil war- 5 memebers in it, all confed, 1 got captured as a doc, and sent to the north to treat union wounded.
    Battle of the alimo- yes i my ancestor was in it.
    Battle of new orleans- my family member new President jackson, we have a signed document from both the vice, and him.
    1880's era?- someone in my family was seceraty of war at the time.
    WWI- no idea.
    WWII- had 3 members, 2 were in peral harbor.
    1- whent through the entire movie of the pacific. he was at all the events and islands and was in PH, retired to texas
    2nd- was a colonel bringing supplies to PH, was in charge of the entire area of ships, i have his sword, and his name was Albert Jackobson.
    3rd-was a colonel in charge of some of the 69th. Was one of the frist to meet up with the russians, and whent to dachu, and other unpleasent things that i should give to a muesum...
    Had more in Num, and thats about it so far, thanks for reading, wish i knew all the names.
     
  18. Biak

    Biak Boy from Illinois Staff Member

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    I'd like to add a picture of a relative I'm rather proud of.
    A cousin's daughter, a Captain now serving as a flight surgeon in Afghanistan.
    We just received a few candid shots and she gave me permission for this one.
    [​IMG]
     
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  19. Krystal80

    Krystal80 Member

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    Lets see way way back my grandmother's family (Nathanial Harris & his 2 brothers) fought against some Indians that were making raids around South Carolina in 1715 http://theindianwars.blogspot.com/2008/02/yamasee-war-1715-1717.html
    Grandpa's mom's grandpa fought for Maine in the Civil War (Sgt Gilford Payson)
    Grandma's relatives fought for the south during the Civil War
    Great grandpa was in Army WWI (towards the end)
    Grandpa Sgt Army WWII (Philippines)
    Great Uncle Roy Sgt Army WWII (Philippines)
    Great Uncle Bates PFC Army WWII (KIA Falaise Gap-France)
    Dad MP Army joined during Vietnam and was sent to Germany
    Cousin is in the Navy, joined to be a Dr. Hasn't been sent over seas yet.
    1/2 brother was in the Coast Guard

    I only know my dad's side since mom split when I was a baby. Would be interesting to know what they have done in history.
     
  20. Eirk Ritari

    Eirk Ritari Member

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    Here's mine.
    8th back Great grandfather: French and Indian War
    7th back Great grandfather: American War of Independence
    3rd back Great grandfather and uncle: American Civil War-CSA both KIA
    Both grandfathers and my grandmother: WWII
    Uncle: Korea
    3 uncles and my father: Vietnam
    Myself and my cousin: Iraq
     
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