Military Brat?

[chef]

My Dad was a lifer in the Air Force, acting as a military policeman and later a 1st Sargeant over a bunch of young airmen. We moved around like the typical military family, never more than 4 years in one location. I attended 9 schools between 1 and 12 grade...due to moving and circumstances.

As a child, I was kind of shy (I know, those that know me don't believe that since I am a pretty extreme extrovert). I shared the 'school thing' recently with a friend and his response was "that explains why you make friends so easily".

One thing I found with all of the moving, you either learn to make friends quickly or get really close to your siblings and family, hopefully both.

There was snother aspect I saw that was pretty consistent. When I knew I was moving, I had a tendency to pull away a bit...a kind of protectve mechanism to assuage the hurt that was coming. I am sure others dealt with this differently.

I was googling and found the following article about being a 'military brat':

Wiki: Military brat (U.S. subculture) (1/4)

A military brat (and various brat derivatives) [1] is a person whose parent or parents have served full-time in the armed forces during the person's childhood. Conventionally, the word brat alone may be pejorative; in modern, especially American, usage, however, "military brat" is often not considered derogatory and may in fact be seen as a term of endearment. [2] [dead link] [3] The term is used in several English-speaking countries, especially Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom; but it is in the United States particularly that this term is ascribed to a collectively identifiable demographic (with extensive psychological research done on the group by the United States Department of Defense). [4] Accordingly, this group is shaped by frequent moves, absence of a parent, authoritarian family dynamics, strong patriarchal authority, threat of parental loss in war, and a militarized family unit. [5] While non-military families share many of these same attributes, military culture is unique because of the tightly knit communities that perceive these traits as normal. Military culture can have long-lasting effects on children. [6]

A girl holds on to her father's leg while saying goodbye to him.
As adults, military brats can share many of the same positive and negative traits developed from their mobile childhoods. Having had the opportunity to live around the world, military brats can have a breadth of experiences unmatched by most teenagers. Regardless of race, religion, nationality, or gender, brats might identify more with other highly mobile children than with non-mobile ones. [7] Some can struggle to develop and maintain deep, lasting relationships, and can feel like outsiders to U.S. civilian culture. Their transitory lifestyle can hinder potential for constructing concrete relationships with people and developing emotional attachments to specific places, which may later develop into psychologically developmental disorders (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Avoidant Personality Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder, etc.). But most assimilate quickly and well as they have to do so with each move. [8]

Contents:
1. Research
2. Military culture
3. Growing up military
4. Current brats
5. Reunited and reaching out
6. See also
7. Notes
8. References
9. External links

Link: http://wapedia.mobi/en/Military_brat_%2 ... lture%29#1.

How did you military brats out there adapt? Your thoughts?

Regards,
Vicki

[Jason Rees]

I always kinda wished my dad would have stayed in the Active Duty force. Staying in one spot, especially in a small community... I always thought it'd be really nice to just be able to start over again.

[chef]

I always wished we didn't have to move so much. It is hard to leave good friends behind and was so sad when your good friends had to move away.

When I was 14 my best friend's father got stationed in Japan. I sent a letter and it came back, missing a necessary number...APO or something like that. Wish they had had Facebook back then...and computers in every home.

That is the biggest down side to military familes.

Another thing was the class kind of system that existed between the officers and non-commissioned officers...kind of like a caste system.

Regards,
Vicki

[f.Channell]

Hi Vicki,
My dad was done with his 20 years of duty when I was young and so I stayed put.
but I did go to the base to buy the cheap out of style clothes and got a couple bad haircuts. The navy doctor who delivered me caused abcesses on my skull which nearly killed me as an infant.
One thing I noticed growing up in a community with a large naval base (for the northeast) was that the Navy kids all stuck together pretty tight and didn't associate with the "townies." They often talked differently, like you at summer camp LOL... The southern belle.

F.

[chef]

Oh, no! Is it that noticeable?

Hey, Fred, you will have to partner up with me again this year for some classes. You were a good and fun partner to work with.

I inherited Bill's dojo and want to look at some of the kid's classes at Summerfest for ideas on teaching them. If we end up with more kids, I would like to do a separate kids class.

I had my son at the early age of 16 (Bad Catholic!). He was born in a Air Force hospital. He was a footling breech birth and I ended up out of my head with an undiagnosed Pre-Eclampsia during the labor. Would you believe they had me deliver him vaginally and not C-Section? Could have been some serious results with the cord and my health. You sure wouldn't see that now-a-days. Thank God everything was okay.

I sure hope military hospitals have improved a LOT since then.

Regards,
Vicki

[Jason Rees]

Military hospitals have their problems, just like others do. The one at Travis AFB has been getting alot of negative press lately.

Personally, I have had two surgeries at military facilities, and we had our daughter delivered by C-Section at a military hospital (Travis AFB, actually), and never had any problems.

Here at Elmendorf, there is some noticeable stratification among the kids, but it's mostly in the background, because the officers' kids go to a different public school. How's that for school choice? Ah, well, ours are going to a charter school this year (and as chance would have it, just as many officer families join the school lotteries as enlisted families).