Preface: It's the military. My father was in the Army Air Corp as a pilot cadet at Camp McCoy and was "volunteered" into the infantry along with his and several other cadet classes (sorry guys, don't need more pilots - here is your rifle). Ultimately ended up on the front lines immediately after the Battle of the Bulge as the Allies pushed back into Germany where he was wounded just north of Trier, Germany and evacuated to England.

His brother: WWII Navy. Think most of his military service was in HI. After the war he married a war widow who had also been a Miss South Dakota and adopted her daughter.

Grandfather: Basic at Camp Lewis before going to Europe for the war to end all wars where he served with a communications unit as a motorcycle rider transporting messages along the front. (That must have been dicey)

Great Uncle: U.S. Navy (Seabee) retired. He was in the Aleutians when the Army sent the troops from California who had been training to go to N. Africa and who were equipped for Africa - not Alaska. His stories were pretty grim as to conditions they had to endure.

Great Grandfather: Civil war; Wisconsin volunteers.

Ancestor: Participated in the burning of the British revenue vessel Gaspee and wounding of its captain, a British Naval officer. British consider it the first act of armed aggression leading to our war of independence. This makes for an interesting historical read in part because the King offered a reward of 1,000 pounds for names......and got none.

Then there was: Wife, Iraq, Desert Storm, 50th General Hospital USAR retired.

Wife's father: U.S. Navy retired; was one day outbound from Pearl Harbor on 7 December.

Wife's Uncle: U.S. Navy then civilian then Marines for duration of WWII.

Wife's great uncle : RAF - Bomber crewman; died over the Channel.

My thanks to them all and their families for their service and sacrifices.