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Thread: Who serves

  1. #11
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    Captdon's Avatar Senior Member
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    I was 4f. All of brothers joined. One was killed and one served 22 years. My sister served and married a man who served 20 years. My father served 17 years in the NG until the War. Then he served 20 years.

    I tried to join but I don't know if I would have stayed in.


    No one else down the line has served. History may not have a role.
    Last edited by Captdon; 01-11-2020 at 11:00 PM.
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  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Standing Wolf View Post
    I think it really only takes one family member spending time in the Service to make it a military family...setting the stage, as it were, for others to do the same.

    My father was drafted into the Army during the Korean War and served as a medic. He didn't appreciate his military experience and counselled me against joining - which I did anyway, in '72. He and his brother, who I guess liked it a bit better and served for a couple of enlistments, were undoubtedly the first members of that side of the family to serve in any military in many generations, as the family was Old Order Amish. I had a great-great-grandfather on my maternal side who served in the U.S. Army in the Civil War, but that side of the family were largely members of another "peace" church, the Brethren, so on that side I was pretty much it after him, except for a collateral ancestor who served out West in the cavalry late in the Nineteenth Century.

    I would guess that my own having served for as long as I did while my oldest three were growing up must have had some positive effect on their views of the military. My third oldest of four sons has spent most of the last 23 years in the Army, first as an enlisted tank mechanic, then as a Warrant Officer and Blackhawk pilot, and now as a doctor in the Army Medical Corps. My oldest son probably would have joined at some point, as well - he has a first responder sort of mentality, having been a firefighter and an EMT - but he had a liver transplant when he was twelve, which sort of put the kibosh on joining the military.

    Had I listened to my old man and not joined - let his negative military experience affect my decision - I think the chances of one of my own kids joining the military would almost certainly have been less. It may just take one family member's experience, shared in a positive way, to jump-start, so to speak, a military family into being.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    Thank you for your service.
    And thank you for yours, sir.
    Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” - Robert E. Howard

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    Retirednsmilin308's Avatar Senior Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by nathanbforrest45 View Post
    I have at least one relative who served in the Civil War, on the wrong side!!!! He was from Indiana and served as a Union soldier. From then until WW2 I don't think anyone in my family served in the military. I have another relative who was chased out of Italy by the Mafia, don't know if that counts or not.
    He probably saw more close combat than anyone...
    Last edited by Retirednsmilin308; 01-12-2020 at 02:18 AM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    I would guess yes.

    I think they were just looking for any connect to the military.
    Complex issue. My dad served in WW2, and ran his home as if we were all in the damned military. The draft ended about a year before my 18th bday.

    For a long time, we had peace. Many joined the military because it offered pretty good benefits once you got out, and there was a great chance that you wouldn't see the front lines. That changed after Desert Storm.

    I think we'd see a big difference in who serves, and how military actions are declared if we reinstated the draft with no exemptions for politicians' families.

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    Quote Originally Posted by John Galt View Post
    Complex issue. My dad served in WW2, and ran his home as if we were all in the damned military. The draft ended about a year before my 18th bday.

    For a long time, we had peace. Many joined the military because it offered pretty good benefits once you got out, and there was a great chance that you wouldn't see the front lines. That changed after Desert Storm.

    I think we'd see a big difference in who serves, and how military actions are declared if we reinstated the draft with no exemptions for politicians' families.
    I went to basic in 1987. It was perfect timing to get experience for Desert Storm.

    I don't think there will ever be a draft. It simply does not mesh with how we fight today. And under current standards any draftee could easily get discharged. Fail two PT tests- oops. Eat your way out- too fat.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    I went to basic in 1987. It was perfect timing to get experience for Desert Storm.

    I don't think there will ever be a draft. It simply does not mesh with how we fight today. And under current standards any draftee could easily get discharged. Fail two PT tests- oops. Eat your way out- too fat.
    I don't think we'll see a draft either. Tomorrow marks one year since I lost a dear friend who served in Vietnam in the mid sixties. He fought agent orange related cancer and died at 70. He used to tell me that the Marines didn't take anyone who was drafted, as they wanted those who chose to join the military willingly.

    The draft does force quite a few who don't want to be there, to be in the military.

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    Quote Originally Posted by John Galt View Post
    I don't think we'll see a draft either. Tomorrow marks one year since I lost a dear friend who served in Vietnam in the mid sixties. He fought agent orange related cancer and died at 70. He used to tell me that the Marines didn't take anyone who was drafted, as they wanted those who chose to join the military willingly.

    The draft does force quite a few who don't want to be there, to be in the military.
    I was a company commander at a Navy training facility during one tour, responsible for 250 men, most of them right out of boot camp, and I probably spent 85% of my time dealing with the 5% who either didn't want to be there or who were totally unsuited for life in the military. And this was with an all-volunteer force. I can't imagine there would be enough hours in the day to manage and discipline a large number of people who never volunteered in the first place.
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    There were 32 draftee Medal of Honor recipients in Vietnam.
    “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” - Barry Goldwater

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cletus View Post
    There were 32 draftee Medal of Honor recipients in Vietnam.
    That doesn't surprise me at all. I'm sure that, over the years when there was a draft, many men who would have never voluntarily sought out a career in the military discovered that it really was for them. Would you also agree that at least a good portion of the problems with conscripted individuals tend to subside, if not disappear all together, in a war zone?
    Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” - Robert E. Howard

    "Only a rank degenerate would drive 1,500 miles across Texas and not eat a chicken fried steak." - Larry McMurtry

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