Does anyone know of any examples of more than 2 family members enlisted in the military at the same time?

Question

And especially if you know of parents/kids serving at the same time.

I'm thinking it's going to be more common with families serving with the military needing more recruits.

Answer 1

The movie 'Saving Private Ryan' was very loosely based on such an example.

Look it up on google and you'll find an instance in WW2 where as 3 brothers were killed in combat and the surviving brother was rescued before he could have possibly been killed.

Answer 2

1. Of course there are many. I served with 2 brothers and a father and son and 2 cousins all in the same battery.
2. The army met its 2006 recruiting goals in September. The army is not hurting with regard to recruitment. Do not listen to the media. Research for the truth.

Answer 3

I read in our local paper the other day of a family nearby (we live in a military town). The grandfather was in Korea, and he was forced to retire from the Reserves right before Desert Storm because he was too old. He pitched a fit because he wanted to go to Kuwait and fight. Now, his son is in the Army, a Command Sergeant Major, and all three grandsons are in the military as well. Two of the sons are in the Army (a 1LT and a PFC) and the other is in the Air Force. The father and two soldier sons were all deployed to Iraq at the same time with different units. The father arranged a surprise meeting so that all 3 of them got to get together while they were there. It was really touching.

Bert - The Gold Stars are for servicemembers killed in action. Blue star banners are for servicemembers who are deployed to a war zone. So if you are wondering how many of the gold star people came back, the answer is none of them.

Answer 4

Since I have been in the Navy, I have had the pleasure of knowing several families that proudly serve together. They range from parent/child to cousins, etc. The only real policy that exists for the Navy is that Husband and wife can not serve together on the same ship. They may serve together in the same geographical area (preferred) or may serve in separate areas (we call it geo-baching). Families serving together is encouraged in the Navy. It gives them a selling point for the recruiters.

On my last ship there were five such parent/children families. It was interesting to watch the parent give professional "advice" to the child. The kid really had to watch out, word travels really fast on board ship.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

During WW2, many rural American farmhouse windows had 2, 3 or 4 big gold stars stuck on the indide of the glass. Those stars meant how many sons were in the service fighting the Nazis. Few farm families had only one son in the 30s and 40s, because the more kids, the more help on the farm later.

As Americans moved away from farming, they had fewer and fewer children per couple, meaning fewer soldiers in wartime, while the children of industrialists made huge sums of money on wars and military conflicts.Since they had the money, they were able to purchase deferments for their otherwise incompetent offspring. These people later came to be known as "Republicans".

Fewer soldiers coming from urban areas meant a greater burdon on farm families to provide cannon fodder in conflicts such as Korea and Vietnam.

So what we have in America now is the euqivalent of the indigent sharecropper farmer, except these poor live in slums and don't receive enough education in public schools to do anything BUT join the military, betting they can survive long enough to collect those GI Benefits, which have been cut twice by Republicans since they enlisted.

I seem to recall reading about one Iowa family with 6 or 7 gold stars in their window, during WW2. I never heard how many of them came back. Can you imagine if Republicans had to put up Gold Stars for how many of their children they got deferrments for?

Answer 6

The Sullivan brothers were five siblings who all died during the same incident in World War II, the sinking of the light cruiser USS Juneau (CL-52), the vessel on which they all served.

The Sullivans were natives of Waterloo, Iowa. They were:

George Thomas Sullivan, 27, Gunner's Mate Second Class
Francis "Frank" Henry Sullivan, 25, Coxswain
Joseph "Joe" Eugene Sullivan, 23, Seaman Second Class
Madison "Matt" Abel Sullivan, 22, Seaman Second Class
Albert "Al" Leo Sullivan, 19, Seaman Second Class

The Sullivans enlisted on January 3, 1942 with the stipulation that they serve together. The Navy had a policy of separating siblings, but this was not strictly enforced. George and Frank had served in the Navy before but their brothers had not.

The Juneau fought in a number of naval engagements during the months-long Battle of Guadalcanal. On November 13, 1942, during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the Juneau was struck by a torpedo and had to withdraw. Later that day, as it was leaving the Solomon Islands' area, the Juneau was struck again, this time from a torpedo from Japanese submarine I-26. The ship quickly sank and rescue efforts were not forthcoming due to fears about the Japanese naval presence. Eight days later ten survivors were retrieved from the water. The survivors reported that Frank, Joe, and Matt died instantly, Al drowned the next day, and George survived for four or five days.

The brothers were survived by their parents Thomas and Alleta and their sister Genevieve. Al was survived by his wife Katherine and their young son James.

As a direct result of the Sullivans' deaths, the US War Department adopted the Sole Survivor Policy.

The Niland Brothers were a group of four American brothers from Kenmore, New York serving in the military during World War II. Of the four, two survived the war, but for a time it was believed that only one, Frederick Niland, had survived. Frederick was sent back to the States to complete his service, and only later learned that his brother Edward, presumed dead, was actually captive in a Japanese POW camp in Burma. Steven Spielberg's film Saving Private Ryan is loosely based on the brothers' story.

The four brothers were:

Sergeant Frederick Niland, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
Technical Sergeant Robert Niland, Company D, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division (KIA June 6, 1944 in Normandy)
Lieutenant Preston Niland, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry (KIA June 7, 1944)
Technical Sergeant Edward Niland, pilot U.S. Army Air Force

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niland_Brothers

Answer 7

my husband and brother are both in the army they served in iraq a year apart and a lady that my husband served with her uncle was over there at the same time also my cousin and aunt are all in the military.

Answer 8

Wow, there are may, buthere are some of th emore intersting ones I know of personally.

While I was staioned in Iraq, there were three intersting married couples in my unit. Two cooks both SGTs one on camo victory south one on camp victory north. Two 1SGTs (who, by the way, attended the adcance course after redeployment abd are now SGMs) finally two truck drivers the irony there is that the wife got out of the army just before deployment and deployed with a civilian contractor that worked with our unit.

Answer 9

I remember watching the military channel when it was doing something about world war II and they had a father and son on it talking... Basicly the father was some high ranking officer while his son was an enlisted soldier fighting on the front lines.... He ran into his dad on the field(they both went to check on the artillary at sametime. I thought that was kind of a neat story....

Answer 10

there are plenty... I had just seen on tv around 3 weeks ago a Mother of 4 with 3 sons serving in Iraq.