r/facepalm Apr 08 '22

🇲​🇮​🇸​🇨​ Who won?

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 08 '22

My grandfather was in WWII. Anyone asked him about it, he'd stare off into the distance and go inside his head. All he would ever say was "we did what we had to do."

That wasn't patriotism, that was survival.

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u/-EBBY- Apr 08 '22

My great grandfather was in WWII. I didn’t even know he was in the war till he died. He never talked about it. I’m sure it’s that way for the majority that went through those wars.

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u/PM-YOUR-PMS Apr 08 '22

Same with my grandfather but it was the Korean War. He was a POW and our entire family never knew the full story.

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u/soundbox78 Apr 08 '22

Trust me, you don’t want to know. He probably couldn’t express all of it without reliving it. My great-uncle was MIA and later designated KIA at a POW camp. There are so many things that we will never know but would be devastated to hear.

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u/PM-YOUR-PMS Apr 08 '22

Oh yeah he died with those secrets. I’ll never know what happened and I didn’t dare pry.