Did a family member serving influence your decision to serve?

On my Fathers side of the family; my Father, Aunt, Uncle and 2 cousins all served. My mothers side both my Grandpa and uncle served. 5 Navy 1 Army and 1 Air Force. They range from Enlisted, Chief and Officers. My blood flows with military pride and traditions. Honestly my family didn't want me to join, they got the call after I had already been in boot camp for 3 weeks. But they have been my strongest supporters through everything. I am very lucky that I have had family in the service that supports what I do.

My father was 24 years Active Air Force (Ret. MSgt), my two oldest brothers both chose the Army (One Ret 1SG and one currently a Sgt). My uncle was in the Navy for a short period of time and I have many cousins throughout different services. Also my grandfather joined the Army after Pearl Harbor, he was living in Ewa at the time and witnessed the attack. I would most certainly say my family influenced me indirectly to join, even though I am the first female to do so. I hope to one day earn the respect as they all did for their service (and hopefully reach the rank my oldest brother accomplished lol best memory of my oldest brother and I was when we were both deployed I was promoted and he was able to pin my rank because he was passing through).

Yes very much so! I admired my grandfather to no end. He was my single best role model. He had seen the writing on the wall with my misbehaving. He urged me to serve as he did. Just by his influence I joined.

SSG Sherman Rivers , I originally joined because of the family tradition of serving that I experienced. My Grandfather retired from the Army in 1973. My Father served in the Air Force during Vietnam. My other grand-dad served in the Army in Korea. My Great Uncle completed nearly 30 years in the Navy.

I guess you could say that it was in my blood.

Absolutely! My Grandfather did 32 years in the Army. My Father did 26 years in the Navy. My Uncle did 25 years in the Army. To put it bluntly, we love our country and serve her proudly. These fine gentlemen did not push me to serve, but showed me what it looked and felt like to serve your country proudly.

My mother's side of the family whom are all USMA graduates. My Uncle Tommy (AKA Tinker) was a man whom I wish I could stand up to and model myself after. A true patriot and citizen to any and everyone he came in contact with. On my fathers side, not so much, not a single service member, now my daughter is in USNA, so much for the Long Gray Line!

Both Grandfathers were US Army.. my father was U.S. Army, and then of course I joined making me a 3rd generation Soldier. Like someone posted up above I am the only one that did more than one enlistment and the only one to make it past SGT (E-5). I wouldn't say that there service inspired me though. I joined the Army because I had no interest at the time in furthering my education. I figured as long as I could graduate High School, that anything the Army threw at me would be easy. "I hated algebra". Hopefully my son will follow along to become a 4th Generation Soldier, however I will only let him go if he choses the officer side of the house. I have worked to hard for him to have to.

My decision to serve was definitely influenced from an early age by my Great-Uncle Carrie Evans. He deployed from Camp Hood in the 1940s, and served as an NCO in Armor during fighting in WWII's European Theatre of conflict. He used to tell me stories of the war and how he earned the Bronze Star with Valor. He saved his tank crew after taking a direct hit from a Panzer. He pulled the crew out, then jumped into the TC seat and began firing back at the Germans with the M-2 .50Cal as the tank was burning. He fought off the attack and somehow was lucky enough to survive the battle before the Sherman's tank rounds started cooking off. By that time, everyone was dismounted and away from the destroyed Sherman. Definitely wanted to serve my country after hearing some of his great WWII stories.

That's an old fashioned baby bottle!!

My decision to serve was due to the fact that I was involved into bad stuff back in Puerto Rico that could've gotten me or my family in a really bad situation. So the quickest and the easiest way to get out was joining the service. With that said, I did have an uncle that served and deployed to Vietnam, my father served in the Reserves, and my oldest brother served in the Marines and deployed to the Gulf War. My mother totally against it because my brother was just getting out of the Marines and here I come, joined the Army, ha ha. My father liked the idea all the way, and told it was the best thing I could've done. So no, my family didn't really influenced me into joining...I did it for different reasons.