In memoriam

[bl4ckh4wk64]

Okay, so let me start with a disclaimer. I'm not too sure where this should go, but I thought it might be a good idea to put it in Off topic. I'm also not sure that by starting this I would be breaking the low content rule, and if I am, please feel free to tell me so and I'll immediately do everything in my power to take the thread down. Oh, also, semi-wall of text.

Okay, so the meat of the topic. It's now officially Veteran's Day in Texas (where I am currently). For me, this day has always really been a day of remembering parts of my family that have served in wars. This day always makes me think of a couple of my great uncles, namely my Uncle Frank and my Uncle Joe. Both of them lived in California before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and both of them were thrown in internment camps because they were Japanese. Like many, they both joined the Army. My Uncle Joe became a translator and worked with the teams trying to decipher the Japanese codes during the war. My Uncle Frank was sent into the 442[sup]nd[/sup] Infantry Regiment, the most highly decorated regiment in US Army history, composed almost entirely of Japanese-Americans.

Sadly, both of them died in the last couple of years, and I always think of them around today and Memorial Day. I really looked up to my Uncle Frank, and I really miss him now.

So, for discussion purposes, let's talk about people you know/people close to you in some way or other who have served and what they mean to you. I know I still have some of my favorite memories with my Uncle Frank, and I'll cherish those forever.

Final Disclaimer: This topic has to deal with parts of the military, and I purposely kept it from Religion and Politics in order to keep from having a debate on the character of these people or the reasons behind the wars, please don't do that.

 

[capper42]

It's Remembrance day here in the UK. I Don't actually have any family in the military. My grandad served in the Second World War, but he loved it, spending most of his time doing postal work in Madagascar, riding around on a motorbike.

I still have great respect for all those who served, and we're supposed to have a minute silence at 11:00 to coincide with the end of the First World War. I probably will already be silent at that time anyway, but have set an alarm to make sure I acknowledge it.

 

[Genocidicles]

My Grandad was in the Irish army, but this was after WW2 I think. I need to ask him about it one of these days.

 

[Faraja]

My mother's biological father fought in WWII, but he died when she was two. Her stepfather (the man I consider my grandfather on her side) was a Tuskegee airman. I don't remember much about him, but I do remember that he was an impressive human being. Being a black man growing in the pre-Civil Rights era, and going on to become a successful pediatrician in Indiana takes a degree of character so many today seem to lack.

My dad's father was in Korea, and my dad was in Vietnam. I'm not very close to my father, at all really, but he is still my father.

I have two cousins in the Army, a friend in the Air Force, and another is a second lieutenant in the Marines. I'm hoping next year to carry on the family tradition of soldiering, and join my friend as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corp.