3 brothers, 70 years of service

The Grants found fulfillment, purpose in long military careers

— Brothers Ralph, Charles and Michael Grant said they were used to following orders - their mother, Anne, raised eight kids by herself, and she kept her brood in line.

So the three thought when they joined the military the transition would be an easy one.

While the tasks facing the military weren’t easy - the Grants joined while the Vietnam War was raging - the brothers found careers and have more than 70 years of combined service.

“Rules and regulations were not new to us. We were used to being told what to do,” Charles Grant said. “Although we were taught to think for ourselves.”

The brothers credit their mother and grandfather, Bly Osborne, for teaching them the discipline and loyalty needed to have a career inthe military.

“We had a grandfather who was very positive and a strong leader. He motivated and pushed us into bettering ourselves,” Charles Grant said. “He walked us to the bus station when we were going off to the service as a proud grandfather. He knew he had set us on a straight and narrow path. We’re so grateful.”

Ralph Grant, the oldest of the three, said he joined the military before he could be drafted so he would have a choice in what he did. In 1971, men were protesting against the draft and some refused to go.

But Ralph Grant wanted to go and do “something substantial,” he said. “My mother wanted me to make something out of myself.”

Ralph Grant said he didn’t intend to make a career out of the military - he was just looking to gain a skill.He joined the Air Force, and after his two-year enlistment was up, he went into the Army and became a combat medic.

“I liked the intensity, responsibility. I liked being accountable. You can make a difference. You were appreciated, respected and they depended on you,” he said.

Ralph Grant took advantage of training opportunities to rise in the ranks and ended up being a consultant to commanders.

“The most satisfying job I did was being a recruiter. That was the hardest and most difficult task to complete,” he said.

After 20 years, he retired as a master sergeant, but when he returned home to Batesville, he had some trouble getting a job. He said many might see service members as arrogant.

“You have confidence in your abilities,” Ralph Grant said. “They train you to think, ‘I can do that.’ They don’t intend to be arrogant, it’s just that they’ve done things most people can’t imagine.”

Ralph Grant said most people think the military only trains people to kill, but he emphasized that military men and women are responsible for millions of dollars’ worth of equipment and have to be quick decision-makers to stay alive.

Charles Grant joined the Air Force after two years of college.

“I just wanted to better myself,” he said.

Charles Grant spent the first four years as an administrative specialist, but then had an opportunity to choose a different field.

“I chose air traffic control and spent the next 22 years as an air traffic controller,” he said. “I wanted a job with more responsibility.”

Charles Grant said the military gave him morecontrol over his career and called it fair.

“If you did your job, you would be promoted,” he said.

He took advantage of every training opportunity.

“Many people chose not to go to training. I went every opportunity I got. It helped me to be successful,” he said.

Although being in the military wasn’t hard for Charles Grant, there were some difficulties, such as leaving his family behind. He had only been married two weeks when he had to leave for an 18-month deployment to Turkey.

Charles Grant and his brothers have been to “all corners of the world,” he said. “Spouses had to really step up to being counted on to run the whole household. It’s double-duty time at home, in addition to holding down a job. It’s just as hard now for our people serving with all the technology and all the support. It’s still a hardship to be away from home.”

It was especially hard after his children were born, he said.

“Possibly one of my best memories was when my young son kept putting his teddy bear in my bag and I kept taking it out,” Charles Grant recalled.

He knew his son loved that bear and didn’t want to take it.

“When I got to Honduras and unpacked - that teddy bear was in my bag. It did me well. He wanted a part of him to be with me while I was gone. You open that and see something like that - it really makes your heart rejoice.”

Retiring as a chief master sergeant, Charles Grant lives in Maumelle and has recommended the military to others, including his sons anddaughter.

Seeing how his older brothers were already in the military, Michael Grant said, their mother pressed him to go to college. Michael Grant had just graduated from Shorter College in Little Rock when he was drafted into the Army.

“I was in one of the last draft classes,” he said in a telephone interview. “I wasn’t terribly disappointed. I was looking for a different adventure by then.”

After military testing, he qualified for West Point and the warrant officer flight program. He was impressed that his cousin was a helicopter pilot and decided to go into aviation.

“What that got me was an early trip to Vietnam,” he said.

Michael Grant spent his entire 30-year military career in aviation. For as long as he flew, he said, there was only one time he hit the ground out of control. While providing general support to troops in Vietnam, he was called to assist a pilot who had been shot down. While flying over an open field searching for the pilot, his plane was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade while it was 200 to 300 feet in the air.

“The good part is you don’t fall very far,” Michael said.

He and his crew escaped with only minor injuries and were picked up 45 minutes later.

Michael Grant retired as a full colonel from the Army and lives in Prince William, Va., where he works as a manager at the FAA Command Center outside Washington, D.C.

“As a veteran, I would tell you a military career isn’t for everybody,” Michael Grant said. “I encourage everyone to give service in some form.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 11/26/2012

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