[imported_Fluffy_Bunny]

My family is mostly dedicated to service in the Royal Navy.

On my fathers side.
My Great Great Grandfather was swept off the rigging of a ship.
My Great Grandfather was blown up on HMS India in WW1.
My Grandfather served aboard HMS Vesper in World War 2, he joined the navy aged 8 after his father died. He had a very eventful war, he was involved in the D-Day landings, he was sunk 3 times and he spent 21 days in a rowing boat adrift at sea, surviving off flying fish.
He was also captured by the Spanish but he managed to escape, evade capture again by hiding out in the Spanish hills and eventually make his way right across Spain to Gibraltar. He used to tell my dad stories of when he was on the Arctic & Atlantic convoys and the German planes would come along and strafe the whole ship. He would hide behind a round metal thing on the ship (I forget the name) and as the plane turned he would creep around it so as to remain hidden from site. In the Arctic convoys it was so cold that the ice on his ship would build up in so many layers that it was in danger of overturning.
Like some people have already said, as a vet he didn't talk much about the war, I know he saw some terrible things, people on fire from the oil tankers that got torpedoed, (the Arctic convoys weren’t allowed to stop and pick up survivors) etc.

I can't help but feel proud of him as I write this though...

I wish I could have met him.