One of My grandads commanded a platoon? (5-6) shermans in the pacific during World War 2.
My other grandad was a Colonel in the Marines during Vietnam. He served in Vietnam for over 10 years (He retired as a Colonel, started service there as a Second Lieutenant out of OCS. He came out of the war pretty crazy, and a couple months ago got wasted, fell in a lake, and drowned. He was with the Marine Engineers, and his Job was basically to clear out all of the tunnels and so forth the VC dug/ made. His unit had 130% casualty rate, only something like 16 people from his original platoon made it through, and that was just in one tour of duty. About a year back I was at an Army Surplus store with him getting some stuff for paintball (He didn't play at all or anything, but he loved Army Surplus stores - and pretty much anything remotely millitary). It was run by a Vietnamese man who had always been pretty nasty. He and my Grandad got to talking and realized that they had known each other for a long time in Vietnam (the guy who ran the store was a South Vietnamese soldier who often was assigned to my grandads unit, I guess as a translator or something). Also, my Grandad lived in Idaho and was visiting my Family in Kalamazoo Michigan (where I lived at the time) so it was pretty cool. Ended up with a bunch of free stuff, as well as an additional Marine Corps flag that I still have.
Another time I got to see my Grandad meet a guy who he carried out of a combat zone and put on a chopper after the other guy got his legs blown off and shot multiple times. My Grandad had assumed the guy had died because of all of his injuries. Was some Crazy shit.
Because of what he did (Clearing tunnels and then also going between lines disassembling booby traps, mines, that kind of stuff) he had 7 purple hearts. 7. He also had (not exactly sure - I will email my uncle who is a Colonel in the Marines currently and find out) at least two Bronze stars and a single silver star, as well as a bunch of other stuff Im not exactly sure about. When he got his Dress uniform on for funerals and Weddings and what not he literally had his whole uniform covered with decorations (which he loved) and he had a massive number of campaign ribbons from his hugely extended tour of duty.
Hugely tough man, one time in the Desert the family car ran out of gas. He had a Jerry can but no way to get it from the can into the car, and he used his mouth to get it from one to the other (he loved to tell this story in particular).
Colonel John C. Hill
