Military children are Brats, not CHAMPS

The Brat heritage of growing up as the child of a military service member is not decided by people who've had nothing to do with military life, and especially not by people who are monetizing the identity. 

The background is that a young woman was moved by the situation of military children with whom she worked. She wanted to do something to "bridge the cultural divide" between Brats-who-are-still young, and the civilian world.  She did this through writing a book that started out as something along the lines of "The Little Brats" but which changed to "The Little CHAMPS," with CHAMPS being the acronym for "child heroes attached to military personnel."  Apparently, the organizations approached to support the effort didn't like the word "Brats." (although we Brats like it just fine) She, and her mother, have promoted the book through USO tours overseas and through various agencies that agreed to support CHAMPS.

I can't address the motives for all this activity concerning military kids.  I assume it is well-meant, but other than raising awareness in the communities in which military kids wind up, I don't know that the community in general needs that much "help."  Yes, kids whose parents are deployed can use understanding, but the "edu-taining" should be directed at the adults in the lives of the kids, maybe perhaps teachers in civilian communities.

A very sour note in the enterprise is calling today's young Brats "heroes."  We Brats don't see ourselves as heroes, those people were our parents.  Don't give the kids the burden of stolen valor.  We weren't the heroes, we knew it, and we were just fine with that.  It's up to the grownups to manage that part, not the kids.

Otherwise, don't medicalize our heritage by acting as if we're abnormal.  From a Brat point of view, our way of life is normal.  All the rest of the country may think it's unique, off-beat, something to be adjusted to, but, to us, your way is what's strange.

I look at my youngest granddaughter, 10 months old, and I think about how I and my kids (all Brats) had all moved at least once by the time we were her age (for me it was 3 times).  My oldest grandson, 15, has lived in the same house his entire life -- how weird is that?  By the time I was his age, I'd had 9 different bedrooms in three different countries.  His dad bested me by the age of 3 (difference between Air Force and Army), by having as many bedrooms as I'd had by 15 -- only two countries, though, but way more states.  All my friends were the same way -- and so were the friends of my kids.

"When I was a kid" during the Cold War, I wondered (when I bothered to think about it) who paid civilians.  

• I wondered who issued them their houses.
• Where did they get their ID cards?
• What was the deal with sales tax?
• Where were their service clubs?  
• How could they tell who were officers and who were enlisted at their community swimming pools?  
• How did they stand living in one place so long?  
• Wasn't it boring having all your friends and neighbors be from the same place? 

Living at a distance from American civilians wasn't much different from living in another country -- for young kids, aspects of both kinds of cultures are foreign, and that's normal.  For us, normal culture was a military culture.  The subcultures of the various services were like different accents with each service having its own lingo and way of doing things, but understandable from a military perspective: go where you're told to go, don't get your dad in trouble by causing mischief and getting the MPs, APs, SPs or whatever other Ps there are, called on you, and when you hear To The Colors at 1700 hours (5pm), stop and face the music (or the flag if it's in view). We all knew this stuff.

As an adult who has, at the age of 64, now lived in one place as long as my grandson, I can see some benefits of no longer being a nomad. It's not as bad as I thought although the lifestyle's blunt edge of seeing the same people for years has been sharpened by the periodic addition of new people to the family -- grandkids are great.

The bottom line for those of us who care (not everyone's invested -- bell curves and all that) is to leave our heritage to us.  Our younger compatriots are not a population to be used for gain. They are the latest generation of our way of life. If schools and communities want to know how to make them feel welcome, look into Third Culture Kids. 

 

Additional information:

• Brats Without Borders 
• Bob Hollicker on Military Brats audio interview
• 25 Signs You Grew Up as a Military Brat I had no idea bowling was such a Brat thing
• Brats Stolen Valor/Stolen Identity Facebook group 
• We’re Military “Brats,” Not Heroes, Champs, Little Soldiers, or Fledglings 
• Operation Footlocker 

 

Comments

[Authorinnc]

I couldn't agree with you one ounce more Valerie! I do love all the things you wondered about as a child.
I guess being a Brat is no different from being anything else. To those who have been in the same situation, you are just one of the gang. To those who have no concept of what that is like, you are a curiosity, at least until they get to know you better.
I wasn't a Brat myself, but I birthed one. There is nothing abnormal about those kids.

[Valerie]

Thanks for your kind words.

One thing I've seen on Facebook that resonated was one of the cute "memes." This one said, "Normal is a setting on the dryer." I liked that because I think to all of us, our lives are "normal."

In an interesting turn of events, I found out late last night that the CHAMPS organization has decided to discontinue their ... efforts.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/12/10/nonprofit-shutters-over-military-child-title-battle.html?comp=7000023317843&rank=1

[Valerie]

Another commentary that has provoked many replies from people concerned about the rebranding of the meaning of the personal histories of military children, present and former is at:

http://spousebuzz.com/blog/2014/12/military-non-profit-destroyed-military-brats.html

[Misty Corrales]

Nicely, and kindly, said