I have many different men who I consider like my Grandfather's and who are bad ass

Fredrick B.:Navy, WW2 tugboat helmsmen. his job was to go into battle with no anti ship weaponry and take damiged war ships back to dock for repairs once saw a Japanese plain on it's way to take them out. He pulled out a .45 1911 and shot it down. now spends his weekends doing volunteer Boarder patrol with that same 1911 for safety

J.M.: you ask what he did in Vietnam and he will say with a smile "if I told you that, I would have to kill you." and you get the feeling that he is dead seirus.

G. V. Lancaster(my paternal Grandfather)master chief, navy. walked into a bar to have a drink. some marine came in and started acting up. Granpa turned in his stool and said "sit down and shut up." "way? what you gonna do?" Grandpa got up pulled on his pants. "I'm not sure yet. I just know that I out rank you, out year you and I have no reason to have any disrespect for the Marines." Grandpa little his pipe before finishing "I also Know something you don't" the guy walked out. to the day he died, he never said what he knew.

Cue the Army / Navy / Air Force / Marines stories.

this Troper's paternal grandfather was a Navy Hospital Corpsman assigned to the Marines. After he left, he became one of the top pulmonologists in Detroit. At the age of 80, he is still in excellent shape for his age.

This Troper's maternal grandfather was, at different points in his life, a Search & Rescue Officer, a fireman and a policeman. He can find anything you've lost, no matter how badly (including a contact lens in the back yard which hadn't been mowed for a week or two). He can judo-throw a guy six inches taller than him with ease. He can spot a robbery three blocks down a side-street while driving a truck 50 mph. He can KubrickStare for minutes on end, leaving the object of his gaze a nervous wreck from simple AWESOME. He is Grandpa. He is BadAss.

My maternal grandad is a 6'5 Norwegian called Ragnar Baardsson. That surname could either mean son of axe or son of beard, both of which he lives up to since he has a beard and he could possibly be the biggest viking fanatic ever. He makes replica viking armour and weapons in his spare time and judging by his appearance smithing makes you pretty damn strong. Between the height, beard and muscles he reminds me of a stereotypical berserker, especially when he's in Large Ham mode. He never did any of the heroic stuff from the other two examples, but he gives you the impression that he still could if he wanted to. He's in his seventies but looks forty-odd, a bit like Brian Blessed. Actually, he could easily be the Norwegian Brian Blessed if he wanted to. Slightly subverted in that he looks badass and is capable of badass but he's just a jolly old loony most of the time.

This troper's granddad is a recently retired doctor who just happens to carry a huge, high-caliber handgun where ever he travels. "For bears." Supposedly. ...Yeah, he's like a real-life DeadlyDoctor / BadassBookworm.

This troper's grandfather overthrew the government of Trinidad and Tobago in 1990.

My paternal grandfather served in Europe during WWII. My maternal grandfather was a meteorologist for the Air Force in Korea and actually had to keep Air Force Freakin' One grounded due to a storm one time. And my uncle recently went off on a couple of FBI agents. But then part of his brain is dying...

this troper was with his grandfather in the car one day waiting at a light when a car ran the red and smashed into another car, then decided to leave the scene. We started chasing them down a main city road doing 80 in a 50 while i fumbled for the phone. The guy finally snapped outta it and turned around to go back but i still love being able to tell the story of when me and my grandpa got in a car chase.

I remember my father telling him about my dead grandpa's life. He started off as a son of a fisherman, in a family of around ten or more, but was the casanova of the village, and how he was in WWII as a guerilla leader in the Philippines, fighting against the Japanese. One of his men was captured, along with his wife and child. His grandpa than went onto a rescue mission, but only saved the child, though. It doesn't sound impressive, it means that he went THROUGH the Japanese army to get to them. And not only that, he eventually became mayor, married the youngest daughter of the richest man in his village, and had four kids, including my dad. Yea, sounds like I'm making this up, but I am not bullshitting you all. Also, my maternal grandmother, who is still alive, had been held up at her house with my parents when they were still dating by robbers, and when one cussed, she got mad and told him off, and he was scared of her. And even though she's in her eighties, she is still independent. Goes to show that this troper has some cool grandparents.

When this Troper's grandfather (on my father's side) was 19, he was out hunting with his friend when they both got into an argument about a woman. His friend shot him in the leg, took his car and left him to die. Out in the woods, in the late 40s, shot in the leg and bleeding out, there was pretty much no chance of getting to a phone. But my granddad picked himself up, wrapped his leg up, limped 2 miles to a farmhouse and talked the guy into driving him to a hospital. He had to have a cane for the rest of his life, and for his last 5 years he had pretty bad Alzheimers, but the fact that he survived and is the reason why I'm here today is pretty damn badass.

Also, my other grandfather (on my mother's side) was a badass in many different ways. He was in the Navy during WW2, he was also shot in the side, and he returned home to make awesome canes and desks for people. One of the canes is solid oak with a brass cobra head that unscrews to reveal the 18 inch blade inside. It hangs proudly on my mantle, and it actually saved my life one night.

Please tell us about this.

This Troper's grandaddy has had a life of badassness. Kicked out of his house at 13 to run the streets with only a knife, some clothing, and a 8th grade education and just recovering from polio. He earned his first switchblade by getting in a gang fight and being stabbed in the calf with it, he didn't relize it was there until he was running from the cops after and just pulled it out and kept it. His kid needed a kidney to live even with the kidney the doctors said she would have about a week of life. He gave his good kidney and the kid lived to her twenties. He has been both shot and stabbed and never went to the hospital for either. At about 52 he had a heart attack in his sleep and woke up, got a glass of water and went back to sleep. A week later he had another heart attack the doctors called the widow maker because most people die before they can wake up. What did he do? he got up walked around drank some water got tired of his arm hurting so drove himself to the doctors. After they figured out what happened they immediately rushed him into triple bypass surgery. Right after he got out of the hospital he told me to drive him to IN N OUT to get a 4x4. First words he told me(9 years old at the time) when he smuggled me a illegal knife into California for me was,"Now boy, you put your thumb halfway down the blade then stab. If they don't go down, well then you give them all of it and you don't stop till they stop bleeding.". Also earned a crowning moment of heartwarming when everybody in my family promised me toys and food if I said their name as my first words. What did the old man say?"If you say my name I won't get you nothing, but I'll love you forever." My first words were,"Gempa"

This troper may not have a badass grandpa, but she does have a pretty badass grandma. She's 5'3", seventy-five years old, and just got her red belt in karate.

This troper has a Badass Grandma on his mother's side. She grew up in Silesia, that part of Poland bordering what is now the Czech Republic, but what was Czechoslovakia in the '30s. After surviving the initial onslaught of German troops, she was coerced into making bullets for the Nazi war effort and, from her accounts, was psychologically abused all the while. After the war, she married a complete {{Jerkass}} who abused her, and they ended up uprooting themselves four times, moving into three European countries before coming to the States. ''Babcia'' (that's Polish for "grandma") then got a job at a Ford assembly line. Staying with her abusive, drunken lout of a husband as long as she could hold out for her kids' sake, enduring countless trips to the hospital, she finally reached the last straw and sought a divorce. She ended up representing herself in the case due to a lack of funds, and during the custody hearings, went up against three of the top lawyers in the state single-handedly. She won. Following that, she continued to work on the Ford line, despite all her jerkwad coworkers. She's still alive and kicking at nearly 84 years of age. On his father's side, this Troper has a grandfather who saw action in Korea and a great-uncle who was an MP in the African Theatre in World War II, but sadly doesn't know too much about them.

Not this troper's grandfather, but her paternal great-grandfather was present at Pearl Harbor. He wasn't one of the soldiers or sailors there, but he was there helping to mend boilers when the attack happened. What was so badass about this? ''He helped cut open the overturned ships to get the surviving sailors out!'' Also, my paternal grandfather was an air force engineer during Vietnam. He was the man who rode in the planes and ''fixed them in the middle of a raid if they got damaged.''

This troper's French teacher told our French Four class a story about taking her daughter skiing. The daughter slammed into a tree and they had to take her to the ER to get stitches. When they got there and had been waiting a while, an old cowboy came in with obvious injuries. He had been gored by a bull, got up, ''snapped the bull's freakin' neck'', drove himself to the ER, and apologized for his gory appearance and offered to let Madame's daughter go first (but the triage nurse wouldn't let him). I don't know if he was a grandfather or not but that is one badass old cowboy.

This troper's family is full of many badass grandpas, but none more legendary then grand uncle Philip, who was part of the landing force at d-day, made his way inland, got captured by Nazi's and was put through torturous interrogation. He escaped.

This troper's grandfather was orphaned at a young age in Armenia, losing his mother to typhus and losing his father and older brothers in the Armenian-Turkish War. Growing up an orphan may have toughened him up for what happened later; after Armenia was taken over by the Soviet Union my grandfather was sent to TheGulag because he had joined an underground anti-Stalinist group that got busted. He survived the gulags for five years, until one rainy night he took advantage of some distracted guards and fled the camp, making his way across the Siberian tundra and sleeping in a cave he found. He then made his way all the way back to Soviet Armenia (an incredible distance), mostly living off the kindness of strangers. But the story doesn't quite end there. Once he reached Armenia, he went under an assumed name. But when WorldWarTwo started, he was drafted and sent to the Russian front, where his troop was eventually captured by Nazis and he was sent to a POW camp. Compared to the gulags though it wasn't as bad, and he got out after the war ended. He had to spend the rest of his life in exile though, sadly, because Soviet prisoners of war who returned home were usually sent straight to the gulag.

While this troper can't claim to have any badass grandparents, he does know a good friend of his dad who most definitly fits this trope. This guy is in his seventies and what do his hobbies include? Well, barefoot waterskiing (that is, waterskiing, WITHOUT THE SKIS) for one thing... in January no less, as well as teaching a SCUBA class, and (at least acording to this tropers dad) has broken pretty much each and every bone in his body at least once. And does he have any plans to settle down? Nope.

This Troper's Grandfather was more of an aversion. He was a frail and almost meek man and never even joined the war. He was more of a victim than anything. However, he DID stand up to the communist government, spoke to famous writers and artists you learn about is schools, as well as their muses, and wrote their biographies. His books were published in all Europe, while he was blacklisted in his own country. He also raised an entire generation of intellectuals. It's a shame what he was reduced to in his last years. His father on the other hand, fought in both wars (he was called in the first time, and went in his son's place the second time), and even cheated death once, thanks to his conveniently placed notebook. My other grandpa actually died in the war, so not even my mother remembered him. Then there was my Grandma's Grandpa, who was a forest ranger, and had several stories of encounters with bears (and on one occasion, a goat mistaken for a bear).

As noted on the Troper Tales page for World War II, this troper's grandfather fought for the Polish Army. I've seen his medal from the Battle of Monte Cassino, and he and his family moved to the UK after the war, where my father was born, before coming to the United States. It makes me extremely proud that he fought as a free man against the Nazis and survived to live as a free man in the U.S. Unfortunately, he passed away before I was born.

My paternal grandfather was born of German immigrants, so when he signed up for WWII, they sent him to the Pacific. He served in almost every major battle. Came home, worked as a plumber for 40+ years and helped raise seven kids, survived four heart attacks and a stroke, had a hip injury that permanently put him in a wheelchair, lost most of his hearing, and yet still demanded his cigars and alcohol. What killed him? Heartbreak one month after my grandmother died.

My Paternal Grandfather is a BadassPreacher of the old school three-hundred-baptisms-a-day type(with the slight subversion that he prefers good-natured sermons to fire and brimstone, though he could probably do that type if he thought it necessary). He supported my Grandma himself as a logger in his younger years, served in the Philipines as a missionary(in the toughest parts apparently; he still keeps a blowpipe in his house which he was apparently given as a gift by some locals). But what is perhaps most badass of all is that he is almost one-hundred, is still full of energy and has just as good of memory as ever. I have two maternal grandfathers one by a first marriage and one by a second. One was a Marine at Chosin. And the other was a forward observer in France during WorldWarII.

My maternal grandfather definitely qualifies. One of seven kids, he started out repairing cars and mining equipment in his small West Virginia town as a kid, and joined the Army Air Corps as a teen by lying about his age, mostly because he liked fixing things and because it was one less mouth to feed and one more paycheck coming home. He worked as a mechanic, fixing planes, and then, when WWII broke out, was sent to the Pacific. During bombing runs, he was the one pushing the bomb out of the plane, and spent time after the war stationed in Okinawa, doing recon and mapping missions. When he came back to the States, they realized he was an excellent teacher and put him to work training recruits, which he did until the late 90's. Now that he's retired, he hunts with his dogs, fires potato bazookas, and goes around to high schools talking about the Air Force. He is also a huge techie, and plays Call of Duty and Team Fortress 2 (among other games) on a regular basis (and he regularly beats his grandkids at them, too - much to their consternation).

This troper's maternal grandfather was a bridge builder in France and Germany during WW2. That doesn't sound terribly badass, until you remember that bridge builders were out there BEFORE the tanks or heavy artilery. You'd have to have balls of steel for that job. My paternal grandpa isn't lacking, himself. He worked in an iron ore mine from age 16 to retirement, raised 4 kids in the house he built with minimal help, could prolly fix anything, and still raises chickens/grows & cans his own vegitables/keeps bees/makes his own sausages. And he's 73.

this troper's grandpa owns so many medals earned from shooting that there isn't enough room on the walls of his house to hang them all. He gave away some to me and my brother just for the heck of it. His wife is nothing to sneeze at either. He has a very nice gun collection, too. This troper fears for any idiot dumb enough to try and rob them...

This troper's great grandfather, by my father's account, definitely qualified. Despite his old age and relatively lean build, he was quite possibly the strongest man that my father has known in his life. As an example, during the reception of my dad's wedding, he challenged my uncle to an arm wrestling contest and slammed him to the table in under a second. And this was ''about a month before he died''.

Though more of a case of Badass Great Uncle than Grandpa, they were age peers and so this gets in. A great-uncle on my mother's side of the family one day abandoned his quiet, blue collar life...to go become a ''mercenary in the Indonesian jungles''. This was apparently to get himself killed so that he would not have to put up with his nagging, shrewish wife. Given that he apparently stayed in the jungle well into his senior years (according to family info, he was a mercenary for nearly ''fifty years'') and died due to natural causes as opposed to your more metal-induced fatalities, we're not sure whether he succeeded or failed in his endeavor. It was said he outlived his wife, so perhaps he finally got what he wanted in the end.

This troper's maternal grandfather fought as a guerrilla in World War II, went on to finish his education and became an accomplished surgeon, and also became mayor of our home town.

For this troper's grandpa (mom's dad) he did three things that when combined definitely are badass. One, when he was stationed overseas, he would find caches of money (gold, mind you) that the Japanese had hidden in the Philippines after WWII. Two, he signed the NSA charter (which had close to 800 signatures, so that in of itself isn't badass) and thirdly he would answer calls on the hotline from Washington to Moscow in the 60s. The interesting thing? He never lived to see me, and I haven't heard about his badassery (or so purported by Mama) until almost two decades after he died.

Even though I never met him, my grandpa, Grandpa Greene fought in the Battle of the Buldge, but not in a tank. In a ''jeep''. He lived into the late 1960's/early 1970's, he still jumped into a river to save a boy from drowning despite having heart problems. It was...a HeroicSacrifice.

This troper's paternal grandfather was a veteran of ''five'' wars in the 20th century...

My paternal grandfather fired the torpedo that sunk the [=ARA=] General Belgrano in TheFalklandsWar.