It's weird, I've known you for over a decade, and somehow never made the connection until now. 

 In contrast, my parents' generation came to the States just as Vietnam was slowly winding down, so they missed out on that, and they were too old for GW I. My cousin was out of the Marines by the time Iraq started up as well. A lot of Haitians from that era were unlikely to see the military as an option, especially since the bourgeois types were unlikely to rocket their way to officer status like back home, and the homless black veterans on drugs literally scared people into wondering what goes on in the military.

Now my niece and another cousin are DoD property.