re: What's the closest you or a family member has been to a part of history?

My uncle was a diplomat in Saudi Arabia who was assigned to frequently meet with and pacify Osama Bin Laden in the late 80s during his transition from wealthy Afghan freedom fighter to radicalized terrorist. Unfortunately my uncle couldn't convince him that the United States had absolutley zero interest in taking over Mekah and Medina and turning them into Christain enclaves.

He was also stationed in El Salvador during their civil war and was involved in some crazy shite. When Oliver Stone made the movie Salvador starring James Woods, he offered a special screening of the first cut to my uncle and his colleagues to verify accuracy. They told Stone that some of the scenes in the movie were just flat out wrong or propaganda and to their surprise Oliver Stone actually edited them out of the movie.