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SantosLHalper Since: Aug, 2009
#6226: Apr 7th 2016 at 10:33:09 AM

My grandfather went to Vietnam.

He was a businessman who worked in a nice office in Saigon.

RatherRandomRachel "Just as planned." from Somewhere underground. Since: Sep, 2013
"Just as planned."
#6227: Apr 7th 2016 at 10:35:39 AM

[up][up]Through the Vatican?

"Did you expect somebody else?"
Demetrios Lucky Seven from Des Plaines, Illinois (unfortunately) Since: Oct, 2009 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Quag15 Since: Mar, 2012
#6229: Apr 7th 2016 at 12:29:19 PM

I'm not sure if he could count as an 'ancestor' (at least, in the longer periods of time), but my uncle fought in the colonial war in Mozambique (more specifically, the northern part). He was also a military instructor in Angola a few months before he went to Mozambique.

Demetrios Lucky Seven from Des Plaines, Illinois (unfortunately) Since: Oct, 2009 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
RJ-19-CLOVIS-93 from New Zealand (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#6231: Apr 7th 2016 at 3:15:43 PM

On the non-blood side of my family tree, my step-mom's dad was in Vietnam. Well OK, he's her step-dad, but he's been the father she never had since she was five

TuefelHundenIV Night Clerk of the Apocalypse from Doomsday Facility Corner Store. Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
Night Clerk of the Apocalypse
#6232: Apr 7th 2016 at 4:47:49 PM

Any of you ever do those genetic samples for genealogy?

Who watches the watchmen?
Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#6233: Apr 7th 2016 at 6:09:57 PM

I only have one pseudo-example, which requires some minor explanation.

I'm from the Brazilian northeast, and my family is from the backlands, a extremely dry and extremely poor area which functioned more or less like the American old west on steroids, with giant rampaging bands of bandits going about in Rape, Pillage, and Burn.

My great-granduncle or grand-uncle (the timeline's a little fuzzy) was a Volante, i.e someone with the specific duty of hunting these bandits and bringing them dead or alive, and from what I gather he was rather good at it (the one family member old enough to have known him said he was suicidally brave and a bit of a Blood Knight), He eventually retired and lived a comfortable life.

Until a pig of his fled to a neighbor's house. Neighbor shot the pig dead. My ancestor thus decided the reasonable course of action was to burn the man's house down. As a result the man in question hired some of the bandits he spent his life hunting to go kill him, and according to hearsay, not any random bandits but Lampião himself and his gang (basically the Brazilian Jesse James) to gun him down and thus he went down in a guns blazing Last Stand.

Or so goes the legend.

So not an actual example of a war veteran but I thought it was worth sharing.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
TuefelHundenIV Night Clerk of the Apocalypse from Doomsday Facility Corner Store. Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
Night Clerk of the Apocalypse
#6234: Apr 7th 2016 at 6:17:57 PM

Interesting story none the less.

Who watches the watchmen?
pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#6235: Apr 7th 2016 at 7:11:26 PM

On that note (i.e., non-military family anecdotes), my family has something of a nautical history. One of my ancestors was a passenger aboard the Titanic (he survived) and another was the captain of a clipper ship.

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LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#6236: Apr 7th 2016 at 7:14:27 PM

All the boats my ancestors used were either ones they used to smuggle rum out of Cuba or to stow away on a trip to the US.

Oh really when?
SabresEdge Show an affirming flame from a defense-in-depth Since: Oct, 2010
Show an affirming flame
#6237: Apr 7th 2016 at 9:17:28 PM

Apparently I had a great-grandfather or so who came to the US to study in the 1920s before he went back to China. The rest of my extended family is still there.

There is a family legend about a great-great-etc.-aunt in the Warlords era somewhere in the Chinese countryside. Most of the men were away from the family compound in the countryside when a gang of bandits came calling. The women locked themselves in, and listened terrified as the bandits began smashing their way into the house through the mud-brick walls...

...until said aunt, who was tiny, took a big German Mauser rifle that the menfolk had left at home, chambered a round, and fired a shot right through the wall. The bandits subsequently buggered off.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.
TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#6238: Apr 7th 2016 at 10:31:48 PM

According to some of my family's geneology research, one of my ancestors was Jaakko Ilkka, the rebel leader of the Cudgel War (a peasant rebellion in Finland against the Swedish crown). They lost.

edited 7th Apr '16 10:32:39 PM by TerminusEst

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
TamH70 Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#6239: Apr 7th 2016 at 11:12:59 PM

My grandda, the real one who died before I was born, not the one I thought actually was the real one until he died (long story) was in the Western Desert and Normandy Campaigns in World War 2, he was tank crew from what I've heard. I really need to do some geneology on him as he sounds like quite a guy.

Achaemenid HGW XX/7 from Ruschestraße 103, Haus 1 Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
HGW XX/7
#6240: Apr 8th 2016 at 10:37:24 AM

My great-grandfather was one of the happy class of the 1900s who were too young for WWI and too old for WW 2.

Schild und Schwert der Partei
Cailleach Studious Girl from Purgatory Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Love blinded me (with science!)
Studious Girl
#6241: Apr 8th 2016 at 12:58:36 PM

[up] The same thing happened with my grandfather, except he fell right between Korea and Vietnam.

entropy13 Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#6242: Apr 8th 2016 at 6:23:14 PM

My grandfather was a guerilla during World War II.

And 74 years ago, Bataan fell.

We now also celebrate the day as the Day of Valor.

Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#6243: Apr 8th 2016 at 6:34:19 PM

The USS Bataan is named in memory of the battle.

RJ-19-CLOVIS-93 from New Zealand (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#6244: Apr 9th 2016 at 2:57:23 AM

Update: I have a few relatives who've been involved in wars. Here's a list:

  • My great-grandfather, who I happen to have the same name(I don't know if that's a coincidence) participated in World War 1. Including the famous Gallipoli Campaign. He was a soldier who buried tunnels underground to get the Germans. He had a brother who may or may not have died in the war. There's a discrepancy in the records
  • His son, my recently departed grandfather, was part of the Korean War. He didn't fight on the front lines, but he was helping the effort. He was a "techie" who helped maintain weapons. My grandmother(who's still alive, btw) met him shortly afterwards, and has his medal with her. She also has a frame from the gov thanking him for his service
  • My maternal side isn't involved in the war effort. Well, except for a cousin of grandma(first cousin twice removed) called Frank, I believe. He was part of World War II, and died when his plane was shot down while above Germany. My grandma has records and pictures at her house
  • My step-mother's father(step-father, but since her bio-dad is unknown he's for all intents and purposes her father) is a Vietnam veteran. And typical to the stereotype, it gave him PTSD. He was still a very nice guy. My step-mom misses him

pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#6245: Apr 9th 2016 at 8:12:34 AM

I also had a great-uncle who was in WWII. He wound up shell-shocked and stuck the muzzle of his rifle in his mouth.

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TuefelHundenIV Night Clerk of the Apocalypse from Doomsday Facility Corner Store. Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
Night Clerk of the Apocalypse
#6247: Apr 9th 2016 at 4:15:57 PM

pwiegle: Damn man that sucks.

A distant relative on the European side of the family during WWII We have this gentleman. Geoffery Pyke Best known for the creation of Pykrete and several ideas that unfortunately never went anywhere due to practicality issues. Things did not end well for him.

edited 9th Apr '16 6:33:13 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?
pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#6248: Apr 9th 2016 at 4:53:42 PM

I appreciate your sympathy, but I never even knew the man. I wouldn't have known he existed, except for what my mother told me when she was doing the genealogy on her side of the family.

All of the relatives I've mentioned previously came from my mother's side. My father's side, I know almost nothing about. I do know I had one ancestor who came over from Ireland about four generations back. The German ancestors on my father's side settled in Pennsylvania before the Revolutionary War.

Ethnically, I'm English and Scottish on my mother's side, and German and Irish on my father's.

edited 9th Apr '16 7:19:52 PM by pwiegle

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Nerevarine Since: Mar, 2016
#6249: Apr 9th 2016 at 6:55:40 PM

My family has a pretty extensive family record on both sides. My mother's side was mostly Scottish, but was spread throughout the English isles. My father's is almost entirely Swedish until 1901, when my greatx3 grandfather immigrated to the US.

I had a grandfather who served in WW 2. I never knew him, as the only time I met him was when I was about 2. He died shortly after. My greatx3 grandfather also served in WW 1, and he did pretty well after until he died from an automobile accident in 1930.

A couple of weeks after he died, his wife (my greatx3 grandmother) committed suicide by burning herself. She took the farm down with her and left 4 orphans; 2 of which were adults, 1 of which was 16, and the last of which was 8.

edited 9th Apr '16 7:00:26 PM by Nerevarine

TuefelHundenIV Night Clerk of the Apocalypse from Doomsday Facility Corner Store. Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
Night Clerk of the Apocalypse
#6250: Apr 9th 2016 at 7:59:51 PM

pwiegle: Almost literally the same heritage I have but swap around your mom and dads side and add in Finnish with the German.

Nerevarine: Kind of sad that last bit. My wife's family one of her Great Grandmothers went a bit over the bend and abandoned her children for over a decade before coming home to the family farm after she snapped out of it. Her dad's side is the fun one. All sorts of back woods and back water types including a relative who was running rum in those high speed road cars during the roaring 20's until he took a sharp curve too hard.

The one grandparent I want to know the most about was one of the few family house call doctors covering a large rural Washington Valley during WWII and got a presidential citation for it. He was eventually made the Ti-cities area Coroner. He was also a Shriner and the family story for him is during his time as a doc during WWII he was perfectly willing to trade for food, labor, parts, and barter for his services to help the poor folks out. He wasn't living high on the hog but he also didn't want for anything if the people had anything to say about it.

edited 9th Apr '16 8:00:22 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

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