Growing Up Military

Military brats' childhoods are often scarred by alcoholism, abuse, and an ever-present threat of a parent's loss to war. This eye-opening, sometimes shocking exploration tells what life is really like for the stepchildren of Uncle Sam. A new recovery group, Adult Children of Military Personnel, Inc., has been formed as a direct result of this book's publication.

After World War II, American political, military, corporate, and humanitarian responsibilities abroad expanded greatly. With families in tow, government officials, military service personnel, business executives, and missionaries began to travel and live, in increasing numbers, outside of their home country. Other nations followed suit. Ender examines this legacy of the late 20th century and analyzes the social, psychological, and historical imprints on people who came of age in these service organization families. Such international experiences impose specific demands on employees, their spouses and their children. These include relocation, risk of death or injury, family separation, and social controls on behavior. This collection contains thirteen essays by researchers studying children, adolescents, youth, and adults in a service organization family context, including the military, the State Department, international educators, and non-governmental organizations. The studies integrate research from sociology, psychology, child and adolescent development, family studies, and communications.

With hundreds of thousands of current and former military brats in the United States, their lives as children of service members are surprisingly little documented. Reading about the experiences of fellow brats can help these children of warriors understand both themselves and the unique world in which they were raised. Learning of the challenges that these children face will also help the general population consider how to honor and to help those whose lives were shaped by the military without volunteering or being drafted. This book explores the military brat experience as reflected in novels intended for adults, adolescent fiction, autobiographies and biographies, and highlights the common elements: frequent moves, the ever-present sense of danger, the potential loss of the service member, and isolation from the larger civilian world. By understanding the lives of brats, we can better understand the very real costs--beyond the lives of service members themselves--that families bear in the name of our collective freedom and security.

"A heart-healing, mocs-on-the-ground story of music, family and friendship." -- Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of Tantalize and Rain is Not My Indian Name. Lewis "Shoe" Blake is used to the joys and difficulties of life on the Tuscarora Indian reservation in 1975: the joking, the Fireball games, the snow blowing through his roof. What he's not used to is white kids being nice to him -- kids like George Haddonfield, whose family recently moved to town with the Air Force. As the boys connect through their mutual passion for music, especially the Beatles, Lewis has to lie more and more to hide the reality of his family's poverty from George. He also has to deal with the vicious Evan Reininger, who makes Lewis the special target of his wrath. But when everyone else is on Evan's side, how can he be defeated? And if George finds out the truth about Lewis's home -- will he still be his friend? Acclaimed adult author Eric Gansworth makes his YA debut with this wry and powerful novel about friendship, memory, and the joy of rock 'n' roll.

Join a brave boy as he shares the challenges and opportunities of growing up as a military brat. Follow him as he reunites with his family, anticipates an upcoming move, adjusts to his father's recent return, makes new friends and shows pride demonstrating military traditions.

It was 2006, and eight hundred soldiers from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) base in pseudonymous “Armyville,” Canada, were scheduled to deploy to Kandahar. Many students in the Armyville school district were destined to be affected by this and several subsequent deployments. These deployments, however, represented such a new and volatile situation that the school district lacked—as indeed most Canadians lacked—the understanding required for an optimum organizational response. Growing Up in Armyville provides a close-up look at the adolescents who attended Armyville High School (AHS) between 2006 and 2010. How did their mental health compare with that of their peers elsewhere in Canada? How were their lives affected by the Afghanistan mission—at home, at school, among their friends, and when their parents returned with post-traumatic stress disorder? How did the youngsters cope with the stress? What did their efforts cost them? Based on questions from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, administered to all youth attending AHS in 2008, and on in-depth interviews with sixty-one of the youth from CAF families, this book provides some answers. It also documents the partnership that occurred between the school district and the authors’ research team. Beyond its research findings, this pioneering book considers the past, present, and potential role of schools in supporting children who have been affected by military deployments. It also assesses the broader human costs to CAF families of their enforced participation in the volatile overseas missions of the twenty-first century.

Did you grow up in the Military? Do you have trouble answering the question "where are you from?" "Every Brat Has a Story" has been the theme of the Military Brats Registry since 1997. Members have submitted hundreds of amazing stories about their unusual lifestyle as military dependents growing up around the world. This book is a compilation of many of those stories to further our goal of preserving the culture and history of "Miitary Brats"

Repairman Jack isn't your average appliance repairman--he fixes situations for people, often risking his own life. Jack has no last name, no social security number, works only for cash, and has no qualms when it comes to seeing that the job gets done. Dr. Alicia Clayton, a pediatrician who treats children with AIDS, is full of secrets, and she has just inherited a house that holds another. Haunted by painful memories, Alicia wants the house destroyed--but somehow everyone she enlists to help ends up violently killed. The house holds a powerful secret, and Alicia's charmless brother Thomas seems willing to do anything to get his hands on that secret himself. But not if Repairman Jack can find it first! Legacies is the first thrilling novel in the Repairman Jack series from bestselling author F. Paul Wilson At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This essential guide for all military families provides helpful advice and reassurance on topics ranging from boot camp, to deployment, to PTSD, from a former "Army brat" turned mother of four military kids. When you enlist in the United States military, you don't just sign up for duty; you also commit your loved ones to lives of service all their own. No one knows this better than Elaine Brye, an "Army brat" turned military wife and the mother of four officers-one each in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. For more than a decade she's endured countless teary goodbyes, empty chairs at Thanksgiving dinners, and sleepless hours waiting for phone calls in the night. She's navigated the complicated tangle of emotions that are part and parcel of life as a military mother. Be Safe, Love Mom braids together Elaine's own personal experiences with those of fellow parents she's met along the way. She offers gentle guidance and hard-earned wisdom on topics ranging from that first anxious goodbye to surrendering all control of your child, from finding comfort in the support of the military community and the healing power of faith to coping with the enormous sacrifices life as a military mother requires. With hard-to-come-by information and encouragement that is like advice from a wise and trusted friend, Be Safe, Love Mom is an essential handbook to membership in a strong and special sisterhood.

The U.S. military has been continuously engaged in foreign conflicts for over two decades. The strains that these deployments, the associated increases in operational tempo, and the general challenges of military life affect not only service members but also the people who depend on them and who support them as they support the nation â€" their families. Family members provide support to service members while they serve or when they have difficulties; family problems can interfere with the ability of service members to deploy or remain in theater; and family members are central influences on whether members continue to serve. In addition, rising family diversity and complexity will likely increase the difficulty of creating military policies, programs and practices that adequately support families in the performance of military duties. Strengthening the Military Family Readiness System for a Changing American Society examines the challenges and opportunities facing military families and what is known about effective strategies for supporting and protecting military children and families, as well as lessons to be learned from these experiences. This report offers recommendations regarding what is needed to strengthen the support system for military families.