Little background: I come from a family which, like a lot of people, had a relatively heavy dose of military participation. My great-grandparents on my dad's side were immigrants from Italy, settling in Brooklyn in the early 1900s.
My grandfather was one of six (five boys and a girl), all born in the U.S. Their cousins (two males) also lived in the same building. They all joined the U.S. military (a few of them together right after Pearl Harbor). From what I remember, two in the Marines, the rest in the Army, no one left alive knows why the split.
One of the cousins was killed in the Battle of the Bulge, but the other six made it. Two were given purple hearts (one from being wounded in N. Africa and the other in France). When I was a kid, these were in glass cases in my great-grandparents' house. A lot of families have stories like this.
My grandfather had two boys, but only my dad had children. I am the only son. Somewhat remarkably, out of all those four other brothers and the cousin who survived the war (all who had the same Italian last name), only two others other than my grandfather had children, and they were all girls (one had two daughters, the other just a single girl). Long story short, I am the only one (other than my father and his brother) with our last name in all of the U.S.
That being the case, I have always told people that my last name means a lot to me. My family knows this and, when my grandmother died recently and family members were cleaning out her house, someone found my grandfather's dog tags and put them on a simple silver chain and gave them to me for Christmas.
I think it's a really cool gift but I somehow feel very odd about wearing them, like it's disrespectful, and even somewhat lame, like I'm trying to pretend that I'm in the Army. None of those guys are left alive any longer (my grandfather was the youngest and he and his next older brother both died in the early 2000s). I don't know how they'd feel about it. Most of them stayed in the military after the war, at least few a few years. My grandfather was stationed in France and Germany through the early 50s but came back to the U.S. to work in NY and then retired in FL (which is where my parents moved to be close to them and where I was raised in the 80s-90s). My father was in the military during Vietnam also, but in the Air Force, stationed mostly in Thailand working on cargo planes.
I grew up in a family where military stories and a respect / admiration for the Army esp. were omnipresent. My granddad's Army blanket was on one of the beds in the guest room, he and his brothers all had a love of firearms and mechanics, all things they'd picked up from their time overseas, etc.
The family members that gave me the gift thinking that I should / would want to wear these tags. I really wish that some of those older relatives were around to tell me what they think but if anyone who has a similar family background has an opinion, please feel free to let me know. Thanks in advance.
My grandfather was one of six (five boys and a girl), all born in the U.S. Their cousins (two males) also lived in the same building. They all joined the U.S. military (a few of them together right after Pearl Harbor). From what I remember, two in the Marines, the rest in the Army, no one left alive knows why the split.
One of the cousins was killed in the Battle of the Bulge, but the other six made it. Two were given purple hearts (one from being wounded in N. Africa and the other in France). When I was a kid, these were in glass cases in my great-grandparents' house. A lot of families have stories like this.
My grandfather had two boys, but only my dad had children. I am the only son. Somewhat remarkably, out of all those four other brothers and the cousin who survived the war (all who had the same Italian last name), only two others other than my grandfather had children, and they were all girls (one had two daughters, the other just a single girl). Long story short, I am the only one (other than my father and his brother) with our last name in all of the U.S.
That being the case, I have always told people that my last name means a lot to me. My family knows this and, when my grandmother died recently and family members were cleaning out her house, someone found my grandfather's dog tags and put them on a simple silver chain and gave them to me for Christmas.
I think it's a really cool gift but I somehow feel very odd about wearing them, like it's disrespectful, and even somewhat lame, like I'm trying to pretend that I'm in the Army. None of those guys are left alive any longer (my grandfather was the youngest and he and his next older brother both died in the early 2000s). I don't know how they'd feel about it. Most of them stayed in the military after the war, at least few a few years. My grandfather was stationed in France and Germany through the early 50s but came back to the U.S. to work in NY and then retired in FL (which is where my parents moved to be close to them and where I was raised in the 80s-90s). My father was in the military during Vietnam also, but in the Air Force, stationed mostly in Thailand working on cargo planes.
I grew up in a family where military stories and a respect / admiration for the Army esp. were omnipresent. My granddad's Army blanket was on one of the beds in the guest room, he and his brothers all had a love of firearms and mechanics, all things they'd picked up from their time overseas, etc.
The family members that gave me the gift thinking that I should / would want to wear these tags. I really wish that some of those older relatives were around to tell me what they think but if anyone who has a similar family background has an opinion, please feel free to let me know. Thanks in advance.
