Military Brats

I grew up as a military brat. More accurately, I was a Navy brat but I spent some time on bases other than Navy bases so I use the broader term. Non-military personnel may find the term “brat” insulting if they do not understand the context but when coupled with the term “military” it becomes a term of endearment for people who have either served in or have grown up as a part of the U.S. military.

I spent the majority of my childhood overseas, living in foreign countries and remote parts of our country – places like Puerto Rico, Germany, Japan, the Aleutian Islands and visiting many more countries as well. I attended a wide variety of schools, mostly Department of Defense (DoD) schools, taught by American teachers, which assimilated the local cultures of the country in which I lived into my education. While I didn’t know it at the time, I found out as an adult that the DoD schools I attended in Japan were built and run as models to the Japanese on how to structure education to promote an industrialized society. This was under General MacArthur's post WW II plan for the period known as “Occupied Japan”.

Military brats tend to have a breadth of culture, experiences and an education on life largely unmatched by most teenagers who were not associated with the military, due mostly to exposure to much more of the world. The military also tends to immerse you in local cultures and teach you how to live like the indigenous people while still maintaining a strong sense of your own country. The foundation for this strong sense of your own country comes from living on the base. Military brats may not develop strong relations with people or places, but can form strong connections with the notion of a military base and the communities in which they find themselves. This is because the knowledge, experience, values, ideas, attitudes, skills, tastes, and techniques that are associated with the military can sometimes differ from civilian culture.

Military bases are miniature, self-contained, government-subsidized towns that promote conformity. No matter where I was in the world, I knew and was comfortable with, the order of the military base. You knew there was a commissary that sold groceries, you knew there was a base exchange that was like a department store, and you knew they both carried American things. You also knew there would be swimming pools, gyms, hobby shops, teen clubs, organized sports teas, and libraries…all very similar no matter what base you were on. The comfort that can be found on military bases is not limited to the physical trappings, but is also fortified by some of the consistent rituals common to them. When moving around the world, these rituals helped us feel at home in our new community. Even though the faces and geography change, the "base" can remain recognizable because the rituals are often uniform. You knew you were going to stand up for the national anthem before each movie began at the theater. You knew when the base flag was lowered for the night each evening that “Retreat” was played over a loudspeaker and you were expected to stop whatever you were doing and face the flag with your hand over your heart.

The bonds formed amongst the brats are far stronger than those formed with civilian children. These bonds are often strong for life. No matter how crazy life got, I always knew that back on the base were other kids that understood what it was like to have a parent gone or worry about your father possibly going to war. I have many such bonds with other brats I grew up with regardless of how many years it’s been since I’ve seen them. Some of them I even knew and went to school with at multiple duty stations. Yeah, I'm talking about you Sue...and yes, you too Karen.

The older I get the more I understand the importance of those bonds, the meaning of our shared experiences, the gravity of our sacrifices, and the fortune of our life education. I will always have a special place in my heart for those other kids I grew up with on those bases during a time when our fathers answered America’s call for service to country. Over the years I have reconnected with some of them and rekindled those ties: Billy Westcoat, Karen Carruthers, Diane Power, Ken and Rick Brown, Sue Saari, Mike Hooper, Paul Gedwed, Ginger Kilgour, Walter Ellis, Gary Pinault, Jacqie Newton, David Osband, Tom Priest, and most recently my friend Debbie Shepherd. To those friends - if you're reading this article...it’s been a treat for me to reconnect with each one of you and I am glad we have all reached out across time and distance to make those connections.