Life Of A Military Brat

Bill Hamm and daughter Mia. Family photo

Growing Up, Base to Base -- Maryann Makekau, Time

Where are you from?

For a military brat, that can be a complicated question.

The website Blog Critics highlighted an episode at the U.S. Army post at Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany. A visiting magician brought a seven-year-old up on stage to assist him with an illusion. When asked “Where are you from?’, the child looked out at his parents, unsure of how to answer.

The magician might have been smarter to ask “where were you born,” had he better understood the military culture.

After several moves, my military children adopted the “I’m from all over the place” answer. Motherly pride nonwithstanding, that’s pretty astute, considering that more than 80% of the 1-million-plus military students attending public schools have moved six to nine times prior to graduating high school. The summer months are peak moving season for our nation’s military families. Nearly a third of the 600,000 annual shipments of household goods take place during that timeframe.

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My Comment: My best friend is a "military brat" .... her dad served in Canada's armed forces for almost 30 years. Over the years she has educated me on how much this impacted her life .... moving from bases to base .... never having the time to establish long term relations or long term roots .... and now wants to make sure that her kids do not experience the life that she did. On the flip side .... I have a friend whose father served in the U.S. military .... and according to him his experiences growing up were the best in his life.