Your relatives who went to war

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havoc

Marquis
I'm sure we had a thread like this years ago, but I couldn't find it, so lets start again.

This is the thread where you post pictures, info, and stories of any of your family members who went to war.



Took some pictures of my Great Grandfather's WW1 'thanks for participating' certificate. I hope to get some pictures of his other war stuff too.
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The only I have to show would be my grandfather's banner from the Swedish Air Force. He volunteered in flying supplies for the Finns' and served in the SAF until 1949.
 
I'm keen to see it.


null said:
I'm not very good at reading fancy writing - what does that say in front of  his name? Also, it's ridiculous how long it took to issue these out - 1955...
 
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Old flag of Abu Dhabi

:arrow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bani_Yas

During the early 20th century, my clan was part of the local, Yas tribal confederation.
Both my grandfather (on my mother's side) and his great grandfather before him where the Sheikhs
or head leaders of the clan. I was told my grandfather took part in the "battle of the black valley"
somewhere near Oman but I cant find any information about it. The clan was already engaged in tribal warfare
with its neighbors at Al Zafrah, long  before settling in Abu Dhabi and joining the alliance with the Al Nahyans.

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Flag of the Trucial States Council

:arrow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trucial_States

Since the great depression and effects of WWII, many locals either traveled to find work in
Kuwait or joined the British army. My father joined the army at Sharjah since about age eleven. not much
action thou, but lots of memories about trying cola for the first time, the introduction of Canadian rifles,
a trip to Bahrain for a minor surgery and listening to the speeches of Egypt's president Nasser, on the radio!

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Flag of the United Arab Emirates

After gaining independence in the 70s, my father rose up the ranks in the country's newly formed army.
During the war in Lebanon, he was sent on a short trip to visit the Arab Deterrent Force stationed there at the time.
He retired later after attaining the rank of colonel. He passed away just four years ago, may God rest his soul.

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null said:
I'm not very good at reading fancy writing - what does that say in front of  his name? Also, it's ridiculous how long it took to issue these out - 1955...
Those numbers are his service number.
 
My grandfather on my mother's side was drafted in 1940 and immediately taken prisoner by the Germans. I hear he didn't like to talk about it.

My grandmother recently told me that after he and his troop got out, they went and found a big secret stash of alcohol that the Allied troops had left behind. So that was my grandfather's war apparently.
 
Apparently the oldest known relative on my mother's side of the family was a Scotsman who, during the time of the American Revolution, was pressed into service by the British and shipped to America to fight for them. Once here, though, he switched sides, joined the Americans, and ended up as an aide-de-camp to General George Washington. After the war, I think he was gifted (or else he bought) a section of land in New York, and there are apparently some distant relatives who still live around there today.

The most recent war that relatives of mine were involved in was WW2, though. One of my grandfathers was deemed unfit for active service due to medical conditions, so he ended up doing things like supervising PoWs outside of prison. I don't think he was a prison guard, but if, for example, they brought a group of PoWs out somewhere to work, he'd supervise them. My other grandfather signed up with the Navy and was trained to operate a landing craft, but I think the war ended before he was deployed. (I know he never saw any action.) He was in the Reserves for years afterward, though: I think he was a Captain, eventually. Speaking of which, there was some relative or family friend or something on my mother's side who made it to like Rear Admiral, sometime during or after WW2: there's a picture somewhere of an aircraft carrier that he must've served on.
 
I like stories like these! Very interesting stuff.

Other than the grandfather in the OP, I also have a few relatives who went to Gallipoli. For those of you who know their WW1 history, one of them (a great uncle) was in the Wellington Mounted Rifles, who were at Chunuk Bair and Hill 60, and survived. I'm not sure on the exact figures, but I think most of them ended up dying.

Only had one relative in WW2. He was in the RAF and we still have his flying gloves and cap.
 
My grandpa and his family took Finnish citizenship (he was Norwegian) during the Winter War so they could serve. Because of this, they did not get recompensated by the Norwegian king (unlike other Norwegians who lost property in the Winter/Continuation War), but the Finnish government refused to acknowledge their participation. Rumor has it the precursor to the True Finns party actually made a law named after my grandfather stating basically that they won't be compensated, but I can't find it on FINLEX.

My grandpa has been looking for acknowledgment for himself and his dead brothers pretty much ever since. He doesn't even want money, just for the state to recognize he did something. He did get wounded, and has been paying for the treatment out of his own pocket for his whole life.
Apparently they wrote to him last year saying that they accept now that he was in the war, but the deadline for the application period just passed, so they can't do anything about it *insert trollface here*. We told him we'll put the oak leaves on his grave anyway, but he says it doesn't feel right unless the entity he fought for accepts it.

 
I had a grandfather who was a Marine tanker in Guadalcanal.

My uncle who was a US MP in Munich during the 1972 Olympics when the massacre happened.
 
My dad was in the US Navy during WWII and was stationed on American Samoa when Pearl Harbor was attacked.  He liked to say that he was one of, at most, 5,000 Americans who even knew where Pearl Harbor was.  :lol:

Also we have the original document that shows my wife's great-grandfather's release from a Union POW camp after the Civil War.
 
Amontadillo said:
My granddad was in poland, saw some stuff, was at Stalingrad, got shot in the lung, got sent home before that whole thing went to ****.
Wow. Yeah, he must've seen some stuff.

Lord Brutus said:
Also we have the original document that shows my wife's great-grandfather's release from a Union POW camp after the Civil War.
Also, wow @ this, too. That's quite the piece of history to have lying around.
 
I had a great uncle that decided to fight the Russians in Finland.

Also a couple of relatives that were part of UN Peace Keeping forces over the last couple of decades (but not sure that strictly qualifies as "war experience").
 
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