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So I thought it be fitting to make a thread in dedication to those who have served in the armed forces of past and present. If you'd like to say thanks below, please do so.

I'll start by thanking an older gent from my church who served in Vietnam and my PE teacher in Highschool who served in the Mid-East. Both are tremendous and selfless men who I greatly admire.


And I think I can take the initiative here and say: Do not muck this up with Politics.

I give thanks to my deceased American grandfather, whom I never got to meet. He stormed both the beaches on D-Day, and his way into my Grandmother's heart, returning with her to rural Illinois following the war.

Unfortunately, he was (or became) a violent, controlling gakbag and she fled back to England with my infant Mother, leaving my toddler aunt with him and his family on their farm.

He was a respected war hero, and 1/4 of my genetic makeup. Sometimes I wish I could have met him.

I have had a lot of family fight in various wars (on various sides as well), with one of the few I know off by name being Lawrence Kesler.

I few years ago I was doing a photography series about historical black towns in Oklahoma and I had the opportunity to snap this picture:



I always end up looking at it and thinking about him on Memorial Day.

 feeder wrote:
I give thanks to my deceased American grandfather, whom I never got to meet. He stormed both the beaches on D-Day, and his way into my Grandmother's heart, returning with her to rural Illinois following the war.

Unfortunately, he was (or became) a violent, controlling gakbag and she fled back to England with my infant Mother, leaving my toddler aunt with him and his family on their farm.

He was a respected war hero, and 1/4 of my genetic makeup. Sometimes I wish I could have met him.

World War 2 messed a lot of people up unfortunately.

I spent almost all of last year researching a man, finding his family, etc, for the purpose of naming our new facility on Fort Campbell after him.

He was the first meteorologist to jump into Normandy, and he did it with the 101st. He spent 18 months prior to this in Greenland, servicing equipment, and when reassigned to a unit in England, he volunteered for Jump School, so he could go with that portion of the invasion. On D-Day he was with a patchwork unit, and they attacked a german machine gun position. He ended up being shot 4 times, and hit by a grenade, which shattered his jaw. When he was carried back to an aid station, German artillery hit that, and caused the building to collapse around him, where he was buried for 3 days, before US forces found him and evac'd him to the beaches where he underwent the first of about half a dozen surgeries. He was awarded the Bronze Star for this. He'd eventually rejoin the Air Force and was the first weather man to go into Korea as well, where he spent several months setting up and maintaining meteorological equipment, sometimes behind enemy lines. All in all, this man was everything we look at as a hero.

Unfortunately, his children had some different views of the man. It's pretty clear that the things he saw and endured in his service changed him in some bad ways. I'm sure it did for many people.

 djones520 wrote:

 feeder wrote:
I give thanks to my deceased American grandfather, whom I never got to meet. He stormed both the beaches on D-Day, and his way into my Grandmother's heart, returning with her to rural Illinois following the war.

Unfortunately, he was (or became) a violent, controlling gakbag and she fled back to England with my infant Mother, leaving my toddler aunt with him and his family on their farm.

He was a respected war hero, and 1/4 of my genetic makeup. Sometimes I wish I could have met him.

World War 2 messed a lot of people up unfortunately.

I spent almost all of last year researching a man, finding his family, etc, for the purpose of naming our new facility on Fort Campbell after him.

He was the first meteorologist to jump into Normandy, and he did it with the 101st. He spent 18 months prior to this in Greenland, servicing equipment, and when reassigned to a unit in England, he volunteered for Jump School, so he could go with that portion of the invasion. On D-Day he was with a patchwork unit, and they attacked a german machine gun position. He ended up being shot 4 times, and hit by a grenade, which shattered his jaw. When he was carried back to an aid station, German artillery hit that, and caused the building to collapse around him, where he was buried for 3 days, before US forces found him and evac'd him to the beaches where he underwent the first of about half a dozen surgeries. He was awarded the Bronze Star for this. He'd eventually rejoin the Air Force and was the first weather man to go into Korea as well, where he spent several months setting up and maintaining meteorological equipment, sometimes behind enemy lines. All in all, this man was everything we look at as a hero.

Unfortunately, his children had some different views of the man. It's pretty clear that the things he saw and endured in his service changed him in some bad ways. I'm sure it did for many people.

Yeah there was limited understanding of the way the brain reacts to stress. That's why I sometimes wish I could have gotten to know him, to see for myself. All I have are secondhand family rumours.

My Grandpa served in a tin can (Destroyer) in the pacific as a Machinist. He passed on a few years ago and was buried in the national cemetary in my state.

He never really talked much about the war and I was too young to ask him.

I'd like to thank all the young men and women who gave their lives or their good health fighting in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My Grandpa served in an all-Chinese American unit in Hawaii during WWII. His proudest accomplishment was serving in the U.S. armed forces. I believe he was a cook for the unit, so those skills were invaluable when he eventually opened a Chinese restaurant in Chicago in the 1950's.

My Uncle served in Vietnam as part of a vehicle recovery unit. Oddly all he talks about is playing basketball and the beaches. There were plenty of scary times but I'm glad he focuses on the good parts of his tour of duty.

I'd like to thank them and all the others for their service for the country.

 Easy E wrote:
My Grandpa served in a tin can (Destroyer) in the pacific as a Machinist. He passed on a few years ago and was buried in the national cemetary in my state.

He never really talked much about the war and I was too young to ask him.

My wifes grandather was a Pathfinder with the 101st in WW2. He went through Market Garden and Bastogne. He passed away before I learned of all of this, but I'm told he never talked about his experiences. At all. I did see a news paper clipping that only him and one other person from his squad made it out of Bastogne, so it's clear he saw some bad gak. I wish I had the opportunity to try to talk to him about it all. Those men are becoming all to rare now a days, and it won't be long before we can't get anymore of their stories.

 djones520 wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
My Grandpa served in a tin can (Destroyer) in the pacific as a Machinist. He passed on a few years ago and was buried in the national cemetary in my state.

He never really talked much about the war and I was too young to ask him.

My wifes grandather was a Pathfinder with the 101st in WW2. He went through Market Garden and Bastogne. He passed away before I learned of all of this, but I'm told he never talked about his experiences. At all. I did see a news paper clipping that only him and one other person from his squad made it out of Bastogne, so it's clear he saw some bad gak. I wish I had the opportunity to try to talk to him about it all. Those men are becoming all to rare now a days, and it won't be long before we can't get anymore of their stories.

Totally agree with you and Easy E about wishing to talk more to Grandpa about his service during the war. My Grandpa passed away in really early 1998 and I wished I could have heard everything about his war time experience.