Do you have any things your parents gave you that they had in the military?

[Archae]

My Dad gave me a P-38 can opener he had in the Korean war.

[Scuba]

1. I still have the leather-bound Army-issue file containing the service records of my father...

The latigo leather has "US Army 21 File" embossed on it in gold. It now contains both his and my service records.

[pinboy3niner]

2. That brings back memories

We still had those in Vietnam.

From my dad, we had one pin from his time in the Navy in WWII. That's all.

[LynneSin]

3. I have all the letters my grandfather wrote to my grandmother

while he was serving in WWII

[bluedigger]

4. A St.Christopher's medal that was given to my grandfather by a Navy Chaplain.

He was in the Army and shipping out to the Phillipines when he was given it. It has the Navy symbol (chain &anchor) on the reverse. I wore it for years until the loop wore through.

[cyberswede]

5. We still have my dad's WWII Air Force uniform.

It's in the cedar chest at my mom's.

My spouse has his grandfather's WWI mess kit, shaving mirror (really a piece of shiny metal in a cloth case - couldn't have glass), and helmet. Oh, and his rifle - not sure what kind.

[HereSince1628]

6. Well, it's not tangible like a p-38 or an old Ike jacket...

But I'm pretty damned stuck with the value that it's not right to dodge the draft and have someone else fill the place you should have taken. And I can only imagine that came from him.

And it's very strange because when my low draft number came up, he actually said it would probably be best for me if I went to Canada...he saw me as deeply counter-culture and anti-war.

He was shocked when I did the common but seemingly irrational thing of enlisting to avoid being drafted

[MiddleFingerMom]

18. I was in the Army in the 70's when there was talk of reinstating the draft...

.
.
.
... and I felt it would have done nothing but increase the chances of aggressive
actions from the U.S. due to an increased confidence/arrogance in the size of its
armed forces (read that: soldiers/cannon fodder).
.
It would have affected my little brother. I told him that if he decided to head out
for Canada, I would help finance that decision.
.
I enlisted, but I am no fan of the draft. The "draft dodgers" were not responsible
for someone being in "their" place... TPTB were solely responsible for someone...
anyone being in that place at all. And I hope we have learned that sometimes
TPTB should be The Powers That Aren't.
.
.
.

[HereSince1628]

20. So fine I'm a guilty fucking redneck Nixon loving Commie killer

I suppose.

[RedCloud]

7. A filthy l.uger

I shudder to think what it was used for. Came from their parents actually.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Not from my parents. I had 2 uncles in WWII and only one came back. I have

the foot locker, blanket, picture, citation for the Purple Heart, a series of letters from my uncle who was killed in France. I also have the telegram to his parents.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. Jet helmet from the 1950s

My dad was an Air Force pilot and flew some of the early jets including the T-33 that he flew to train new pilots. He also left some cigarette lighters, uniforms, and medals from his time as a POW in WWII and a pilot in Vietnam, including the Air Medal, Purple Heart, and Bronze Star. He also left me a couple of crossbows and arrows from Vietnamese Montagnards from the time he flew spotter planes between Special Forces firebases in Vietnam.

[kcass1954]

32. Where did he train? When my parents got married in the early 50's,

Daddy was a T33 instructor at Webb AFB.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

38. To the best of my recollection

he trained pilots in the T-33 at both Tinker Field AFB in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Randolph AFB in San Antonio, Texas. I was a small child of 3 to 5 years when we lived in those places back in the early to mid 50s.

[geardaddy]

10. Used to have my dad's dress blues

from when he was a sailor in WWII, but my mom donated them to the Guthrie Theater. My brother has his dog tags. My mom has his Radarman's manual and I have his watch cap.

When I was in high school, I used to wear his deck jacket from when he was on a destroyer in the North Atlantic.

[OriginalGeek]

11. Neither of my parents were in the military

but my grandpa is giving me his Remington .45 M1911 from WWII. He was a CWO in the Air Force and had the gun but never even loaded it. Unless it was test fired at the factory it has never had a bullet pass through it. I aim to keep it that way. I'll probably clean it up and put it with his old uniform and other stuff.

[OswegoAtheist]

12. My parents didn't serve, but...

I did. I have a wooden staff from when I climbed Mt. Fuji and a ticket stub for Pres. Clinton's 2000 speech at Camp Foster during the G-8 Summit in Naha. Those are the extent of my service souvenirs.

Oswego "But I also have three kids, so they're going to have to fight for 'em " Atheist

[kurtzapril4]

13. The last few years of his life

my dad would give me stuff from his time in the South Pacific in WWll every time I went to FL to visit. I got his bomber jacket, his flight record book, his bronze stars, and various medals, patches and ribbons. Lots and lots of pictures, and this leather bound book about his bombadier group. It has a map in the back two pages with little blue circles and red Xs on various Pacific Islands. I never noticed them until after he died, so I don't know what they mean.

[benld74]

14. WWII stuff from dad

Bayonet
Models of WWII planes made from gun cartridges
Japanese 'footlocker' partially filled with small sea shells
Photos from New Guinea
Draft notice/discharge papers
Invoice of amount of pay he got when discharged
Ash trays made from large shell casings
Letters he wrote home
etc

[dimbear]

15. The 32 Savage dad used to patrol the docks in Portland, Oregon.

My uncle had more excitement. He was in a ship which was attacked by kamikazis.

That's got to be a peculiar life experience.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. My parents never were in the military

but my cousin gave me a bad case of potty mouth when he got out of basic training　

[MiddleFingerMom]

22. Those of us who had been in the military culture and away from the civilizing influence of family...

.
.
.
... for years -- no matter how "tough" we were -- were all a little terrified that
we were going to return home and, at the family Sunday dinner, ask Grandma
to pass the fucking butter.
.
.
.
Seriously.
.
.
.

[kwassa]

17. A rarely-worn shirt issued to Dad when he came back in WWII

by the Army at a base in Texas. He also had his first fresh tomato in years, which made him ecstatic. The shirt sits in my closet now.

somewhere we have one of these:

[doc03]

29. I have a dagger my uncle got in WWII but it is not as

fancy as that one. The one I have is not as thick, has a steel case and a black
plastic handle.

[Throd]

21. B-52 helmet circa 1968 from Wurtsmith AFB

[handmade34]

24. Grandpa's shaving kit from WWI

my dad gave it to me a couple of years ago along with his and grandpa's discharge papers... and each time I see him he is starting to give me more... My dad loves to show people discharge papers from both WWI and WWII with his name on it. He is a Jr but the discharge papers don't show it, so he likes to initially goof on people and tell them he was in both wars


Grandpa, dad and my sweetie (WWI, WWII and Vietnam)




similar to this (stole pic from internet)

[rrneck]

25. Navy Pea coat signal flags, service ribbons and insignia, Ariska rifle and bayonet. nt

[Rhiannon12866]

26. My grandfather's WWI dog tags

My great aunt gave them to me to give to my Dad. She was married to my grandfather's brother and they joined up together, but I have no idea why she had them. My grandfather died when my Dad was 12. Needless to say, my Dad was astounded, but pretty thrilled. I also have his army discharge papers. His horsemanship was listed as "very good."

[csziggy]

27. I have the trunk that went to Hawaii with Mom when she was a Navy Nurse

In World War II.

But since she gave it to me in the 1960s, it's covered with big green and yellow flowered contact paper.

[madamesilverspurs]

28. A recording Dad made

at the USO when he was DI in the Army Air Corps. A novelty way of sending a "letter" home, it's a disc, and the layers are separating, but it still plays.

Also have Mom's ration books.

-

[doc03]

30. I have the flag and the purple heart from my uncle that was killed in the

Battle of the Bulge, he is buried in Belgium. I have a Nazi dagger another uncle brought home from WWII.

[Ineeda]

31. This is embarassing, but

I have some photos of bare-breasted ladies. My dad was a PTer (Boat #160) in the Solomon Islands and the sailors took pictures of the locals -- the women only I guess, as there aren't any of men. My brother has a pin that is perhaps stainless steel (I doubt if it's silver) and it's of a PT boat that has torpedo dangling by two chains underneath. It's pretty substantial -- not tinny and cheap -- and about 1-1/2" to 2" long. I think these must have been available to the women in the sailor's lives. Gosh, I haven't thought about that stuff in ages. Dad died in '95 and Mom was incapacitated by stroke in '99, so there's no one left to ask about specifics.

[jrandom421]

33. As the oldest,

I got all of Dad's and Mom's old stuff. This included Dad's old uniforms, complete with the 442nd RCT unit patch, his 2 Silver Stars, his 3 Purple Hearts, and his apology letter from President Reagan. I got Mom's old nurse's uniform, the original Internment order, and all of her old diaries about life in the internment camp.

[DryHump]

34. This is sappy, but

my Mom and Dad were both sergeant's in the Army in WWII. They met in 1943 at the same base in Georgia. They married in 1945. Both are gone - but what they left me was their love, their love for their family. Yowza.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

35. Both my grandfathers were in WWI

And they both had some pretty cool souvenirs. Unfortunately, one grandfather's stuff was all lost in a move (probably stolen) and the other's didn't pass to me.

[Old Troop]

36. I have Dad and

FIL class A uniforms. Numerous unit patches from FIL. A P-38 airplane model made from shell casings and bullets from dad and a Japanese flag (with blood stains on it). Both served in WW2 in the Pacific and European Theaters. Dad got malaria in New Georgia and FIL got much of one arm shot off at the Bulge. Both got out as soon as possible and seldom talked about the war. My kids and grandkids have closets full of uniforms, helmets, rucksacks, and other field gear as well as items from several battlefields. Luckily, although they honor the service, they are not particularly interested in the gear.

[nyquil_man]

37. My father gave me a cloth map of Southeast Asia.

[Jack Sprat]

39. A WWII Army sewing kit.

Some German paper money and some insignia. I had a bunch of old postcards from my Dad's WWII service in Europe, but my sister took them and put them in an album. Some of the postcards were risque for the times, especially the ones from France.

[Glassunion]

40. M1 rifle from one grandpa and a hitler youth knife from another.

I loaned the knife out to a museum. It was kind of creepy. Grandpa said it belonged to the "sorry son of a bitch" that shot him.

There were some other odd an ends that I got, but it was after they passed away.

[Major Nikon]

41. I have my G-G-grandfathers civil war officer's sword

Also a copy of his Civil War memoir. I also have my grandfather's mess kit he used in WWI, with all the names of the French villiages he visisted carved into it.