One grandfather served with the Army Coast Artillery pre-WWII, then with the Corps of Engineers during the war; I've seen a picture or two of him at the bridge at Remagen, but he wasn't a frontline soldier. The other I...don't know. My mother's side of the family was never close. Father was Navy with the riverine forces in Vietnam and still works for the Navy in a civilian capacity. His sister, my aunt, was Military Police around the same time but never got closer than Korea. Lots of people I know and/or work with are active-duty military, this is a Navy and Marine town.
The girl's family is mostly military. Her brother was in the Navy serving aboard an AE (that's Auxilary, Explosives to the layman, an ammunition ship and source of endless black humor, as they are named after active volcanos) and volunteered roughly a year ago for the reforming riverine force in Iraq, but he's supposedly being reassigned to the States for duties unspecified within a month or so; he suspects that the opinion of a senior enlisted (those who actually command and fight the small boats usually) is wanted by the acquistions people. Her father is Navy, captain, serving currently on a staff job here on the West Coast, commanded a frigate for the first round of the Gulf conflicts and served aboard a destroyer during the late 70s and early 80s in that part of the world, when Iran and Iraq were messing about. Her mother is former Navy, just missed Gulf one in retirement, a nurse.
And me? Not me. I don't believe I'm cut out for it, though I've been told otherwise. My brother considered the Marines but decided against.
