History Main / DadTheVeteran

* ''Literature/TheSagaOfTuck'': The protagonist's father, Bill Tucker, [[TheVietnamVet joined the Marines during the Vietnam War]] to get away from an abusive pastor who had the rest of his family under his thumb. He saw heavy combat,losing several close friends, and would suffer {{Past Experience Nightmare}}s following the war. Despite this, he remained (in his own words) a 'Leftist Gun Nut' who made sure to teach his children wilderness survival, basic military tactics, and [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety proper gun usage]], mostly [[CrazyPrepared in case things went sideways]]. After talking Tuck down from his late-night suicidal impulses following a break up, Bill discusses his wartime experiences with Tuck until sun-up, deeply impressing his child.

* Jack Drake, father of Tim Drake (ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}} III[=/=]ComicBook/RedRobin), was formerly in the Army though he rarely brings it up. Tim addresses him as "sir" fairly regularly.

This was a JustifiedTrope not too long ago for American families, given the almost back-to-back nature of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, and UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Sometimes a fictitious GreatOffscreenWar is used when the parental characters would have been too young (or hadn't been born yet) to have participated in any of the aforementioned wars, depending on the current PresentDay. Given the ongoing [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror War on Terror]], one can expect this trope to [[CyclicTrope come back into prominence]]. It shows up quite often when the plotline involves TheGenerationGap.

Quite often, especially in shows set in TheFifties and TheSixties, the father figure will be a veteran. Whether he's a StandardFiftiesFather or an OverprotectiveDad, he's capable of being a real hardcase in the right circumstances. Yes, even the Dads who appear to be nothing but creampuff [[PapaWolf can be tough guys when they need to be]], and he bases it all on his years of military service.

This effect can also happen if Dad used to be a cop, or a government agent of some sort. In comedies, it often turns out that yeah, Dad was in the Army... but he was a cook, or a file clerk, or a mechanic, or had some other less than intimidating job.[[note]]This is actually the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityIsUnrealistic far more likely scenario.]] There is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tooth-to-tail_ratio Tooth-to-tail ratio]] concept, which is the ratio between people in active combat, and their support personnel, and the latter is usually the overwhelming majority in the US. A "Vietnam vet" in the Army for example, would be nearly 13 times as likely to be primarily non-combat personnel. See: EasyLogistics.[[/note]]

This effect can also happen if Dad used to be a cop, or a government agent of some sort. In comedies, it often turns out that yeah, Dad was in the Army... but he was a cook, or a file clerk, or a mechanic, or had some other less than intimidating job.

* On ''Series/TheCosbyShow'' Cliff Huxtable served in the Navy.

* Played with in William Beamon's novel ''Literature/TheSunshineState''. Teenage Darryl is warned by his girlfriend Sandra's father that "he'd been in the Army during the war" (the war in question being the Vietnam War) and that if Darryl "got fresh", dad might have to hurt the boy. Later when he's alone with her, he jokes about the warning, theorizing that her dad (described as "round, well-padded, balding, and genial" earlier in the novel by Darryl himself) had probably been a cook or a file clerk. She hastily corrects him:
-->"Who dad?" she asked. "No, he was an Army ranger. He'd be dropped behind enemy lines to rescue prisoners of war and stuff. He knows how to kill people about a dozen ways with his bare hands. I saw him beat up a guy who was trying to break into our car outside of the movie theater with a rolled up magazine. You know... special forces kinda stuff."
* John Clark, a character who makes multiple appearances in Creator/TomClancy's books, is a Vietnam veteran, a former Punisher-style vigilante, and leader of an elite anti-terrorist unit. He's also a PapaBear to his three daughters. One of them related a story about he frightened off-for good- a boyfriend whom he found less-than-acceptable ''just by giving him a death glare.''
* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', all of the Whistler grandmothers had been common line soldiers, descended from soldiers, blacklisted for treason, trained as thieves, and turning their hands to becoming spies. They passed this training down to their daughters, who passed it down to ''their'' daughters. The granddaughters all have military discipline, on down to [[ChildSoldiers the little ones]], and they are well able to defend their youngest and their menfolk. Thanks to the Whistler grandfather and his odd ideas, said menfolk are also somewhat trained. Jerin Whistler benefits from this. He's a NonActionGuy like every male in the setting.

* In ''December Stillness'' Kelly's father is revealed to be a Vietnam Veteran, contrasting with Mr. Weems as he has adapted to life after the war much better than the other.
* For Literature/KrisLongknife, it's Great-Granddad the Veteran, as well as Great-Grandma: her father's a politician and her grandfather a {{Fiction 500}} CEO, but all three of her surviving great-grandparents are veterans of the Iteeche War and subsequent human-on-human unification wars, and one more died in action. One of them, Terrence "Trouble" Tordon, helped Kris out of a troubled childhood and got her into orbital skiff racing as a teenager, and Kris eventually defied her parents and followed the greats into the SpaceNavy.
* ''Literature/ADogsWayHome'': Lucas' mother Terri is a war veteran. Due to her traumas, she neglected him in his childhood. She also became dependent on alcohol and drugs, which she still deals with years after being clean. Lucas doesn't care to think about the past but it troubles his mother deeply.
* Paula's father in ''Literature/UglyMemories'' attended VMI (a real-life military college in Virginia). The audience never finds out if he's a veteran of an actual war or not. Still, his behavior - especially the profanity-filled lecture he gives his daughter - fits this character type.
* In the ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'' series, Mark Valdez's father Sergey Valdez fought in the Fourth Void War against the [[HumanAliens Faata]] at the rank of commander and in the Earth Federation's ongoing war with the [[FrogMen Dromi]], quickly moving up in the ranks and becoming an admiral. Between the two wars, Valdez Sr. was a mercenary for the [[SpaceElves Lo'ona Aeo]] and frequently fought Dromi raiders assaulting Lo'ona Aeo trade ships. Mark himself served during the Dromi War but then became the first in his family to leave the service after two decades (his parents were killed in battle, as was his great-grandfather Commodore Paul Richard Corcoran during the Second Void War). Commodore [[OverlyLongName Olaf Peter Carlos Trevelyan-Krasnogortsev]] is a career officer, who spends most of his life fighting the Dromi, eventually dying aboard his flagship. He's had several wives and abandoned a number of children. Even when he was married to their mothers, he rarely saw them and typically couldn't wait to get back into space while on leave.
* ''Literature/TheMachineGunners'' has main character Chas' grandfather, with whom he lives, be a veteran of World War I, the Battle of Caporetto specifically; unlike the more badass versions of this trope in fiction, the book plays it very realistically showing the actual trauma of battle to contrast it with the jingoistic propaganda surrounding war which Chas and friends are taken in by. Chas' grandad has very serious PTSD and even a rattling pot or kettle lid can trigger damaging flashbacks to the perils of combat.

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', John Winchester was a Marine Corporal in Vietnam, home again some time in his early twenties to marry his sweetheart. We know him as the hard-bitten, driven CrusadingWidower who raised his two sons in a kind of traveling boot camp, so it's quite a shocker when TimeTravel in season four reveals that he came back from the war still a cheerful, outgoing young fellow. Whose idea of a date was apparently [[MaltShop going out for milkshakes]].[[labelnote:*]]This time travel is not to the fifties. It is to ''1973''.[[/labelnote]] The Marines may have given him the tools to kick ass with, but the BloodKnight TheStoic hunter thing was all him and his vendetta.

** In one episode, due to rising gas prices, he buys a small, economical Japanese car. His pride in his military service clearly took a back to his habit of stretching his dollars as far as possible. "The last time I was that close to something made in Japan, it was shooting at me."

* Inverted in the case of UsefulNotes/TheBerlinRepublic which has a generation (between the WW 2 generation and UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror generation) that could not have conceivably served in any war under German command. They might regale their kids stories of The ''Bund'' or NVA, but they were both peacetime armies preparing for a war that never came. However, while the new ''Bundeswehr'' is an all volunteer army since the 2010s, it is also an army involved in actual shooting war in UsefulNotes/{{Kosovo}} and UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}} since 1999 and 2001 respectively. So there have been newspaper specials about adult sons (and in some cases daughters) talking to their peacetime dads about war and being a veteran.

* Actor Gerald [=McRaney=] often played Vietnam War veterans or other military character; with the example best fitting this trope being his role on ''Series/TouchedByAnAngel'' spinoff ''Series/PromisedLand'' as Vietnam veteran Russell Greene.

[[caption-width-right:286:Don't ask, don't tell. [[note]]The dad in this poster actually is ''not'' an example; the propaganda here is "when all the other lads have stories of heroism for their kids and your kids ask you for war stories, how well is 'Daddy was a coward' gonna play?" However, it does a marvelous job of showing the cultural assumption of that era that most men of childraising age would be veterans--in this case, of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.[[/note]]]]

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This was a JustifiedTrope not too long ago for American families, given the almost back-to-back nature of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, and UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Sometimes a fictitious GreatOffscreenWar is used when the parental characters would have been too young to have participated in any of the aforementioned wars, depending on the current PresentDay. Given the ongoing [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror War on Terror]], one can expect this trope to [[CyclicTrope come back into prominence]]. It shows up quite often when the plotline involves TheGenerationGap.

* In Reunion'', the Jewish protagonist's father, a decorated WWI veteran, responds to a Nazi goon putting up boycott posters on their shop by putting on his uniform and all his medals and standing at attention next to the goon without saying a word. The Nazi gives up and leaves in shame.

** In Hopper’s tie-in book ''Literature/DarknessOnTheEdgeOfTown'', he was this to his daughter Sara and [[spoiler: adopted daughter El]], having spent two tours of duty in Vietnam.

* Park's father from ''Literature/EleanorAndPark'' served in the Korean War, and is suitably gruff and aloof.

** With shades of PhonyVeteran - he was in charge of the motor pool.

* People do not talk about war.

* Weirdly, dramatically and awkwardly inverted in the case of UsefulNotes/TheBerlinRepublic which has a generation (between the WW 2 generation and UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror generation) that could not have conceivably served in any war under German command. They might regale their kids stories of The ''Bund'' or NVA, but they were both peacetime armies preparing for a war that never came. However, while the new ''Bundeswehr'' is an all volunteer army since the 2010s, it is also an army involved in actual shooting war in UsefulNotes/{{Kosovo}} and UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}} since 1999 and 2001 respectively. So there have been newspaper specials about adult sons (and in some cases daughters) talking to their peacetime dads about war and being a veteran.