[snakeoil]

Chris left for Army Basic (Caps Intended) yesterday. Here is a list of my family members that have served our country in the military. The list includes present to grandparents and includes 1st cousins. I am proud of my own and my family's service to my country but ask nothing more than to live and participate in this great country. I also retain the right to bitch about everything my country does.

4 Army
1 Navy
1 Coast Guard
1 Marine (30 years service)
2 Air Force (1 with 20 years service)
All but 1 has served in combat or combat zones.

Included are:

2 Silver Stars
2 Bronze stars
3 Commendation Ribbons
2 Purple Hearts (thankfully neither was permanetly disabled)

I requesr that other board members list the service to their country of their family members (present to grandparents, 1st cousins included)

[johnforbes]

Great idea for a thread.

In 2012 and 13, I wrote up a 200-page report on both sides of my family, and everybody ought to attempt to do a project like that to preserve family history.

My uncle Charles earned the DSC at the Meuse-Argonne. Despite a serious leg wound, he led his men through a hail of gunfire. Like many others who led the way in WW I, he trained at Camp Meade, MD. I knew him as a friendly old fellow with a limp who ran a hardware store, so it was interesting to learn about his deeds.

My uncle Bob was a rifleman on Iwo when the flag was raised over Suribachi. He was sitting around drinking beer in 1943 with a bunch of frat brothers and they all decided to go enlist in the Marines. In later life, he had a bunch of kids and had a career as a bank executive.

One of the hired men for my father was a POW at a stalag in Neubrandenburg, and I recently did a report for his daughter on his service. He was just an agricultural manual laborer who sometimes worked as a night watchman. But, after his camp was opened by the Russians, he and others commandeered cars and trucks as they made a long journey across active combat zones to become repatriated.

That's enough for now, but hopefully others will post and create a rare worthwhile thread.

[snakeoil]

Thanks for the contribution John.

My brother was wounded twice. Under the rules at the time, unless you were in the hospital for 3 or 7 days (I forget what he told me the time period was) he wasn't elegible for the Purple heart. The second time hw was wounded was when he was awarded the Purple Heart.

[snakeoil]

I'm sorry. My thread is not to suggest that you have to have served in the military to be an American; I'm not an elitist. Someone who fights, as a civilian, to make sure that our country stays true to it's principles is just as important as serving in the military. If you are one of those; thank you for your service!