These past few days I’ve dedicated blog posts to my late grandpa. I’ll continue to celebrate memorable chapters in his life. Today’s post is about his military service.
My grandpa joined the People’s Liberation Army when he was just sixteen. He served during the last few months of World War II until the civil war between the communists and nationalists in China.
He drove tanks in the army and was a part of China’s first official armored vehicle division.
Grandpa was also in one of the tanks during the first annual National Day parade in 1949 shown here in this video. I remember him saying how hot and stuffy it was inside one of those tanks that day. National Day celebrated the formation of communist China and the unity of a nation finally able to stand up on their feet after a few hundred years of foreign invasions and civil wars.
He retired from the army when he was twenty.
After retiring from the army, he worked in a tank factory as a production planner. The factory still exists today under a different name called Norinco. Grandpa made a career building tanks and worked in the factories until retirement.