well sense my dad is old enough to be the generic grandpa (well he is one so yeah) im going to tell his vi-et-nam storys.
keep in mind he told me these stories years back so they may be a bit off
he was drafted into the army while he has taking college, so he finished up his term first before they pulled him (or he just went, i dont remember, either way he was drafted in college). when he was with the rest of the draftees, they announced that they need some people to join the marine corps. no one volunteered there, so they went to discuss who they were going to pull, and lo and behold, they picked all of those who went to college. so he got drafted into the marines.
he was only in combat for a year, although he was stationed in california. the only story when he was in the states i can remember is that one of his buddy's buddy got a fancy new car, and within a week, he ended up completely totaling it and got taken to the hospital. don't know what happened to him as my dad was stationed another place soon after.
one of his stories while he was actually in vietnam was one of the days he first there a battle was happening near where he was staying. it was the night, wasn't a land battle, and they couldn't do much so they just watched the battle go on on a nearby beach. the next morning they went back to that same beach and just a couple of meters away from him was a dud bomb laying in the sand.
another lucky moment he had there was when he forgot his rifle some place near. he was coming to get it while on a bridge, someone started shooting at him with a pistol in the river. he was incredibly close, but somehow completely missed every single shot. my dad got away safely.
he didn't really tell me of any generic bad ass moments, he even said that he hoped he never killed anyone. i don't mind that, he's still a cool guy.
also i think his dad served during wwii but he never really told much of his parents so idk.
