Yeah, it's not like he's a Vietnam vet or anything.

I dunno, making your Vietnam vet grandpa freak out and hit you seems kinda serious to me.

Even if OP warned him he still could've had a flashback.

Well 16 I'm guessing that he doesn't have too many flashbacks because if it was leftover from new years, since they used fireworks on new years I am assuming he wasn't flipping out on everyone for hours, especially if there was only a single firecracker left, so if he was warned he probably wouldn't have.

PTSD doesn't generally work like that. It's possible the grandfather might not have even known he'd react that way.

If warned, even if it would freak him out he could either be freaked out slightly less or even go somewhere else to avoid the loud noise.

As someone else already said, PTSD does not work like that, genius. He can not chose to "freak out less". Do you tell people they should have less fever or headache? And he might not even know that he reacts that way. He might have no problems with fireworks in case he knows what is going on, but freaks out when caught off guard.

As a matter of fact, I have PTSD and if I'm prepared I can often brace myself or decide if I need to leave, and I have a pretty good idea of what things might set me off. Living with it is something that you learn to do after a while. I am not saying that it would have been a foolproof way to avoid the problem, just that giving him a chance to make a decision might have helped.

Also, it seems pretty obvious to me that firecrackers might sound like gunshots. The grandfather would probably know that, and know that he had PTSD. I'd also be wary of that if I had a war veteran in my family and maybe just tell him to go somewhere else preemptively.

I think OP being ok is something better to hope for.

And they did a lot of messed up shit in that war on both sides, my grandfather told me some of the things he did and saw. I dont blame OPs grandfather for reacting like that.

I agree. The war was traumatic and those memories can't be nice.

Finally, someone with a brain. You never know what could cause a flashback, and they aren't something to joke about. YDI OP.

Maybe they didn't knew he would have flash backs or even that he had PTSD. It's not like OP did it for a joke. It sucks for both of them but I wouldn't say OP deserves it

If your a Vietnam vet chances are you have ptsd. I don't care who you are.

Even the vets still around from ww2 still have PTSD in some way.

Considering it's leftover fireworks, they probably didn't know that it would set their grandfather's PTSD off *because* the fireworks didn't set them off before. Granted, there's other ways that it could have been their fault, but without a follow up, it's not enough to judge on.

If you want to play jokes on people man up and take the results. You make unexpected explosions around a combat vet and you're not very bright