We're BRATS, and we like it that way.
December 22, 2014 8:05 AM Subscribe
A couple of years ago a mother / daughter author team wrote a book for dependent kids with parents in the military, in which they decided to replace the traditional "Military Brat" identifier with "CHAMPS" ( Child Heroes Attached to Military Personnel). The book spawned a non-profit called Operation Champs, which provided support services to military dependents and their families.
The initial release of the book in 2012 wasn't really noticed, but more recently actual military BRATS have been up-in-arms over the appropriation and change of their traditional identifier.
This included attacking the book on Amazon, and successfully lobbying organizations supporting "Operation Champs" to stop doing so.
The BRATS apparently have won, as the authors have shut down the non-profit they were building around the CHAMPS concept.
The initial release of the book in 2012 wasn't really noticed, but more recently actual military BRATS have been up-in-arms over the appropriation and change of their traditional identifier.
This included attacking the book on Amazon, and successfully lobbying organizations supporting "Operation Champs" to stop doing so.
The BRATS apparently have won, as the authors have shut down the non-profit they were building around the CHAMPS concept.
Jesus, that escalated quickly...
I mean, okay, I get that you don't feel the name needs to be changed, but I'm not sure razing their whole town and sowing the ground with salt is really called for.
posted by Naberius at 8:13 AM on December 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
I mean, okay, I get that you don't feel the name needs to be changed, but I'm not sure razing their whole town and sowing the ground with salt is really called for.
posted by Naberius at 8:13 AM on December 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
Ever thus to do-gooders.
posted by thelonius at 8:17 AM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by thelonius at 8:17 AM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
Starting a non-profit is an excellent way to pay yourself handsomely. Most non-profits are, IMO, a scam: little money paid out to those they claim to benefit, a lot of money paid to its executives and marketers. Excuse me while I eye CHAMPS with great suspicion.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:18 AM on December 22, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by five fresh fish at 8:18 AM on December 22, 2014 [7 favorites]
Not to mention spreading the word "hero" ever-thinner and in more and more places where it doesn't belong.
posted by 1adam12 at 8:22 AM on December 22, 2014 [60 favorites]
posted by 1adam12 at 8:22 AM on December 22, 2014 [60 favorites]
I think the idea of commercialising the identity (as the blog post COD posted) is what has people riled up. The culture of military brats is an entrenched idea that a lot of people see as core to them and their background (e.g. my girlfriend's mom, who grew up travelling with her Air Force father and still refers to herself proudly as a military brat, despite not setting foot on a base in decades). To then have someone come along and say "oh, no, we're changing that from under you, and also here buy this book that we're selling"... there's gonna be some reflexive blow-back, whether fair or not.
posted by Itaxpica at 8:23 AM on December 22, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by Itaxpica at 8:23 AM on December 22, 2014 [7 favorites]
Not to mention spreading the word "hero" ever-thinner and in more and more places where it doesn't belong.
Can we please just do this repeatedly until it loses all meaning? It's already diluted past having a useful meaning, so let's just grind it down to nothing. If soldiers are all heroes simply for doing their jobs, then why not their children, who didn't even get to make a decision to live that life?
posted by explosion at 8:25 AM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
Can we please just do this repeatedly until it loses all meaning? It's already diluted past having a useful meaning, so let's just grind it down to nothing. If soldiers are all heroes simply for doing their jobs, then why not their children, who didn't even get to make a decision to live that life?
posted by explosion at 8:25 AM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
Wait... how do you tell the difference between who are officers and who are enlisted at the community swimming pool? Are there standardized rank-emblazoned swimming trunks? Does the pool water part before the officers like the Red Sea?
posted by XMLicious at 8:28 AM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by XMLicious at 8:28 AM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
"What do we call service members' kids?" comes up every now and then in military circles -- pretty much once a generation, as a new crop of parents try to get involved. A standard military joke is to refer to a change of nomenclature of anything by saying, "Well, someone needed a bullet on their eval," and that's often how this sort of thing gets looked at.
"Brat" is here to stay because generations of kids have grown up with it, and "military brat" isn't seen as an insult in any way (well, except kids can make anything an insult, of course). It's a simple, elegant way to say, "I grew up all over the place because one or more of my parents was in the military."
It's too bad that Operation Champs got railroaded like that; I hope the Finks feel up to devoting their energies to the population using a slightly more nuanced approach in the future.
posted by Etrigan at 8:29 AM on December 22, 2014
"Brat" is here to stay because generations of kids have grown up with it, and "military brat" isn't seen as an insult in any way (well, except kids can make anything an insult, of course). It's a simple, elegant way to say, "I grew up all over the place because one or more of my parents was in the military."
It's too bad that Operation Champs got railroaded like that; I hope the Finks feel up to devoting their energies to the population using a slightly more nuanced approach in the future.
posted by Etrigan at 8:29 AM on December 22, 2014
Wait... how do you tell the difference between who are officers and who are enlisted at the community swimming pool?
Separate swimming pools.
Those sorts of things are dying quickly -- officer and enlisted clubs are mostly consolidated into all-ranks clubs these days. A big part of it is the money necessary to keep separate facilities open, but there's also a large component of "Wait, isn't this segregation?" especially when applied to people who don't actually have the rank, such as spouses and children.
posted by Etrigan at 8:31 AM on December 22, 2014 [5 favorites]
Separate swimming pools.
Those sorts of things are dying quickly -- officer and enlisted clubs are mostly consolidated into all-ranks clubs these days. A big part of it is the money necessary to keep separate facilities open, but there's also a large component of "Wait, isn't this segregation?" especially when applied to people who don't actually have the rank, such as spouses and children.
posted by Etrigan at 8:31 AM on December 22, 2014 [5 favorites]
Not to mention spreading the word "hero" ever-thinner and in more and more places where it doesn't belong.
AND applying the word 'Champ' to things that aren't cryptozoological.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 8:32 AM on December 22, 2014 [5 favorites]
AND applying the word 'Champ' to things that aren't cryptozoological.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 8:32 AM on December 22, 2014 [5 favorites]
//Separate swimming pools.//
I grew up on military bases and I don't remember separate pools, and I mostly lived at the pool during the summers. Maybe the USAF was more progressive about rank integrating the pools? I definitely remember NCO vs Officer's Clubs, and I certainly made more money pushing the lawn mower around the officer's housing than I did on the side of the base my NCO dad got to live on.
posted by COD at 8:37 AM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
I grew up on military bases and I don't remember separate pools, and I mostly lived at the pool during the summers. Maybe the USAF was more progressive about rank integrating the pools? I definitely remember NCO vs Officer's Clubs, and I certainly made more money pushing the lawn mower around the officer's housing than I did on the side of the base my NCO dad got to live on.
posted by COD at 8:37 AM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
Wait, is BRATS also an acronym?! Please tell me it is and it's really tenuous.
posted by Flashman at 8:38 AM on December 22, 2014
posted by Flashman at 8:38 AM on December 22, 2014
I mean, okay, I get that you don't feel the name needs to be changed, but I'm not sure razing their whole town and sowing the ground with salt is really called for.
As an air force brat, razing and sowing with salt seems appropriate. I'm probably different than the "proud brat" type though -- to me it's just the gross glurgy patriotism of the whole thing that makes me want to find these people and apply negative reinforcement.
Also their mission of "giving back" and "expressing gratitude" blows. You want to help? Create concrete programs that keep kids in touch with friends from previous tours to reduce the psychological scars of moving every couple of years.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:39 AM on December 22, 2014 [18 favorites]
As an air force brat, razing and sowing with salt seems appropriate. I'm probably different than the "proud brat" type though -- to me it's just the gross glurgy patriotism of the whole thing that makes me want to find these people and apply negative reinforcement.
Also their mission of "giving back" and "expressing gratitude" blows. You want to help? Create concrete programs that keep kids in touch with friends from previous tours to reduce the psychological scars of moving every couple of years.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:39 AM on December 22, 2014 [18 favorites]
I grew up on military bases and I don't remember separate pools, and I mostly lived at the pool during the summers. Maybe the USAF was more progressive about rank integrating the pools? I definitely remember NCO vs Officer's Clubs...
Sorry, I was imprecise. Not like "This pool here is for officers' kids, and this one right next to it is for enlisteds' kids," but often, there was a pool at the O-Club and a pool at the NCO Club, and you went to the one that your dad was a member of. There were also unsegregated community pools at most bases. A lot of it was just how big the base was and whether the Clubs were big enough to have pools.
posted by Etrigan at 8:41 AM on December 22, 2014
Sorry, I was imprecise. Not like "This pool here is for officers' kids, and this one right next to it is for enlisteds' kids," but often, there was a pool at the O-Club and a pool at the NCO Club, and you went to the one that your dad was a member of. There were also unsegregated community pools at most bases. A lot of it was just how big the base was and whether the Clubs were big enough to have pools.
posted by Etrigan at 8:41 AM on December 22, 2014
Wait, is BRATS also an acronym?! Please tell me it is and it's really tenuous.
It totally isn't. I've heard at least half a dozen versions of what it comes from, but no one's ever been able to prove any etymology aside from "Kids used to be called brats, and the military ones started taking it up as a mantle of prestige."
posted by Etrigan at 8:42 AM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
It totally isn't. I've heard at least half a dozen versions of what it comes from, but no one's ever been able to prove any etymology aside from "Kids used to be called brats, and the military ones started taking it up as a mantle of prestige."
posted by Etrigan at 8:42 AM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
I like how they have, down on the left side of their page, some crap that bacronyms out to CHAMPAIGN.
Do you think they also have an URBANA somewhere in their mission statement-ish twaddle? Or should someone break the news to them about the town and the drink?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:44 AM on December 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
Do you think they also have an URBANA somewhere in their mission statement-ish twaddle? Or should someone break the news to them about the town and the drink?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:44 AM on December 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
Metafilter: I'm not sure razing their whole town and sowing the ground with salt is really called for
posted by surazal at 8:46 AM on December 22, 2014
posted by surazal at 8:46 AM on December 22, 2014
Wait, is BRATS also an acronym?! Please tell me it is and it's really tenuous.
From the linked Stars and Stripes article: "The word brat likely originated from an acronym that dates back to the British Empire, originally standing for British Regiment Attached Traveler."
This is, of course, bullshit.
posted by Naberius at 8:48 AM on December 22, 2014 [12 favorites]
From the linked Stars and Stripes article: "The word brat likely originated from an acronym that dates back to the British Empire, originally standing for British Regiment Attached Traveler."
This is, of course, bullshit.
posted by Naberius at 8:48 AM on December 22, 2014 [12 favorites]
//Wait, is BRATS also an acronym//
In my first draft of the post, I didn't capitalize it, because I've never thought of it as an acronym. I went with the capital letters more to contrast it with CHAMPS, which is very much a contrived acronym.
posted by COD at 8:49 AM on December 22, 2014
In my first draft of the post, I didn't capitalize it, because I've never thought of it as an acronym. I went with the capital letters more to contrast it with CHAMPS, which is very much a contrived acronym.
posted by COD at 8:49 AM on December 22, 2014
Like ROU_Xenophobe, I am a deeply anti-glurge brat.
I'm struggling a little to figure out what exactly the organization did, outside of offering free babysitting, which is indeed great. From the About Us on the website:
Operation CHAMPS is a 100% volunteer-run 501(c)3 nonprofit that engages civilian communities in giving back to military and veteran families. We do this in three ways:
1. The Champsitting Program - Provides free babysitting to military and veteran families.
2. The Little CHAMPS Public Health & Education Initiative - Provides pedagogic tools to meet the social and emotional needs of elementary school-aged Champs.
(Bold is mine - I love that there is no #3.)
posted by naoko at 8:52 AM on December 22, 2014 [7 favorites]
I'm struggling a little to figure out what exactly the organization did, outside of offering free babysitting, which is indeed great. From the About Us on the website:
Operation CHAMPS is a 100% volunteer-run 501(c)3 nonprofit that engages civilian communities in giving back to military and veteran families. We do this in three ways:
1. The Champsitting Program - Provides free babysitting to military and veteran families.
2. The Little CHAMPS Public Health & Education Initiative - Provides pedagogic tools to meet the social and emotional needs of elementary school-aged Champs.
(Bold is mine - I love that there is no #3.)
posted by naoko at 8:52 AM on December 22, 2014 [7 favorites]
(FWIW, I find all of the backronyms claimed by proud brats in the one-star Amazon reviews - "Born. Raised. And. Trained." "Bold, Respectful, adaptive and tolerant" etc. - pretty barfy as well.)
posted by naoko at 8:57 AM on December 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by naoko at 8:57 AM on December 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
Contrived is the word. Why mess with something that is accepted and the military kids themselves like? We've used the same word for the itinerant oilfield family lifestyle we lead and no one has ever objected.
posted by arcticseal at 8:58 AM on December 22, 2014
posted by arcticseal at 8:58 AM on December 22, 2014
Wait, is BRATS also an acronym?! Please tell me it is and it's really tenuous.
It's derived from Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast, the typical diet of a child living on a military base.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:02 AM on December 22, 2014 [20 favorites]
It's derived from Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast, the typical diet of a child living on a military base.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:02 AM on December 22, 2014 [20 favorites]
That's only because that's all that military commissaries are legally permitted to stock. It is known!
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:11 AM on December 22, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:11 AM on December 22, 2014 [6 favorites]
Another Air Force brat here, glad to see that silly effort die a-borning. Change the "H" to "Hellion" and it would apply to me, however.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:30 AM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:30 AM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
I'm a military brat (Dad is a retired Marine); that's always what I say when people ask where I'm from and nobody seems too confused. "Where are you from?" "I'm a former CHAMP!" That would be weird.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:51 AM on December 22, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:51 AM on December 22, 2014 [5 favorites]
I'm so confused about the pools thing. I grew up on army bases, and we never even once had different swimming pools. We did have different clubs for officers and enlisted, but they never had swimming pools at those facilities. The club was more like a meeting place with a restaurant.
posted by mochapickle at 10:34 AM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by mochapickle at 10:34 AM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm so confused about the pools thing. I grew up on army bases, and we never even once had different swimming pools. We did have different clubs for officers and enlisted, but they never had swimming pools at those facilities.
I remember being at Fort Bragg in the late '70s or early '80s and having to count out the proportion of officers' kids to go to the O-Club pool, because we could each take one non-member guest (and back then, "non-member" meant "not an officer's kid," because you had to be a member of the O-Club if you were an O). I may be conflating that with some other damn thing, because my childhood memories are shit, but if it wasn't that, I have no idea what the original author was talking about in re being able to tell officers' and NCOs' kids apart.
posted by Etrigan at 10:48 AM on December 22, 2014
I remember being at Fort Bragg in the late '70s or early '80s and having to count out the proportion of officers' kids to go to the O-Club pool, because we could each take one non-member guest (and back then, "non-member" meant "not an officer's kid," because you had to be a member of the O-Club if you were an O). I may be conflating that with some other damn thing, because my childhood memories are shit, but if it wasn't that, I have no idea what the original author was talking about in re being able to tell officers' and NCOs' kids apart.
posted by Etrigan at 10:48 AM on December 22, 2014
Self-identification as a champion (or hero, or genius, etc) is done ironically or with tongue planted firmly in cheek. When others apply the label sincerely it is as a reflection of recognition of accomplishment.
Us brats, we've done nothing out of the ordinary by growing up in the military family. We have, however, attended the ceremonies where the medals were pinned on those who DID make sacrifices and overcome obstacles and achieve uncommon success.
So when people ask where I'm from, I'm ok calling myself a brat. And in the deeply southern town I've come to call home - a place I've lived for going on 20 years now, and that I lived in a couple of different times while growing up - being a military brat is the talisman that protects me from the scorn of being "from off". (Or worse, from Ohio, bless their hearts).
We definitely had the 'O' pool and the 'E' pool in Little Creek, Virginia in the early 80's. We couldn't have a pool party for the soccer team because there weren't enough Officers kids on the team to get passes for all the Enlisted kids. Officers kids were not allowed in the E pool no matter what. We usually ended up going bowling. (on preview, what Etrigan said)
And I'm still not sure if I was more of an embarrassment for dropping out of college or enlisting in the Coast Guard.
posted by ElGuapo at 10:49 AM on December 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
Us brats, we've done nothing out of the ordinary by growing up in the military family. We have, however, attended the ceremonies where the medals were pinned on those who DID make sacrifices and overcome obstacles and achieve uncommon success.
So when people ask where I'm from, I'm ok calling myself a brat. And in the deeply southern town I've come to call home - a place I've lived for going on 20 years now, and that I lived in a couple of different times while growing up - being a military brat is the talisman that protects me from the scorn of being "from off". (Or worse, from Ohio, bless their hearts).
We definitely had the 'O' pool and the 'E' pool in Little Creek, Virginia in the early 80's. We couldn't have a pool party for the soccer team because there weren't enough Officers kids on the team to get passes for all the Enlisted kids. Officers kids were not allowed in the E pool no matter what. We usually ended up going bowling. (on preview, what Etrigan said)
And I'm still not sure if I was more of an embarrassment for dropping out of college or enlisting in the Coast Guard.
posted by ElGuapo at 10:49 AM on December 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
I grew up in a proudly military town on the southern edge of Camp Pendleton and as a result, I went to school with a huge number of military brats (officers' kids and enlisteds' kids alike). Military families were our next door neighbors, their kids were my school friends, we all filled out the form every year in school to indicate whether our parents served, we all took the ASVAB in high school and eyed the recruiters warily...hell, our junior prom was held at the Camp Pendleton officers' club.
All this to say that I'm kind of weirded out that these women thought 'heroes' had any place in an acronym about military kids. My friends were most definitely brats, not heroes, and they would be the first ones to tell you so. It's not an easy life (besides the obvious issues with moving around so much, there's less obvious domestic violence and PTSD issues) but it's much easier than the life of their deployed parents.
posted by librarylis at 11:10 AM on December 22, 2014
All this to say that I'm kind of weirded out that these women thought 'heroes' had any place in an acronym about military kids. My friends were most definitely brats, not heroes, and they would be the first ones to tell you so. It's not an easy life (besides the obvious issues with moving around so much, there's less obvious domestic violence and PTSD issues) but it's much easier than the life of their deployed parents.
posted by librarylis at 11:10 AM on December 22, 2014
I was a navy brat. Dad was a SeaBee.
I don't recall separate pools, but I died in a little inside when my parents moved from the trailer park near the runway to a house in town. I so loved watching the planes take off - even now, I sometimes run outside when hear one go over.
This CHAMP thing can die in a fire.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 11:12 AM on December 22, 2014
I don't recall separate pools, but I died in a little inside when my parents moved from the trailer park near the runway to a house in town. I so loved watching the planes take off - even now, I sometimes run outside when hear one go over.
This CHAMP thing can die in a fire.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 11:12 AM on December 22, 2014
Former Navy brat here --- 'former' as in, I'm a few decades past turning in my dependant's ID card. But as far as I'm concerned, calling me or any other military brat, current or former, a 'hero' is barf-making territory: we were just kids whose families moved around a lot. You want an unsung hero? Try the people like my Mom, who did the single-parent-but-not-really thing year after year, without any contact from Dad (a submariner) for months at a time. I remember once when Dad came home from the base on a Friday and announced --- totally out of the blue! --- that a moving truck would be there on Monday. Dealing with that is being a hero, not merely being a military brat.
These women and their gawdawful cutesy 'Champs' shit make me think of the snottiest, most self-absorbed officer's wives from back when there were separate clubs for the officer's 'ladies' and the enlisted 'wives'..... even as a kid, I could see their hypocrisy and the way they looked down on enlisted families as a lower species.
(And as far as base pools goes: there was only one base we were stationed at, Pearl Harbor, that even had a pool. One pool, swim in it or go to the beach, that was the options.)
posted by easily confused at 11:23 AM on December 22, 2014 [6 favorites]
These women and their gawdawful cutesy 'Champs' shit make me think of the snottiest, most self-absorbed officer's wives from back when there were separate clubs for the officer's 'ladies' and the enlisted 'wives'..... even as a kid, I could see their hypocrisy and the way they looked down on enlisted families as a lower species.
(And as far as base pools goes: there was only one base we were stationed at, Pearl Harbor, that even had a pool. One pool, swim in it or go to the beach, that was the options.)
posted by easily confused at 11:23 AM on December 22, 2014 [6 favorites]
I understand what they're trying to do (kind of) but I think my basic issue with it is to re-brand something with "child" - I'm a brat. Married, a bit over 40, but I'm still a brat. Photos on my desk at work of my dad in his dress blues (now retired), another one of him and a few others during his final deployment. I'll always be a brat. It's a global family I might not have chosen, but it's an easy signifier at any age of a shared upbringing, and I'll always use it as a shorthand to other brats to let them know I know what they're going through, and I'm still here to support them.
posted by librarianamy at 11:25 AM on December 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by librarianamy at 11:25 AM on December 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
I like the definition of courage offered in Leadership in Dangerous Situations. An act of courage:
1) Must be freely chosen
2) Must be in pursuit of a noble/worthwhile goal
3) Must involve significant personal risk
I set the bar for "heroism" above that. It pains me to see the term "hero" spread as thin as whitewash.
posted by itstheclamsname at 11:25 AM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
1) Must be freely chosen
2) Must be in pursuit of a noble/worthwhile goal
3) Must involve significant personal risk
I set the bar for "heroism" above that. It pains me to see the term "hero" spread as thin as whitewash.
posted by itstheclamsname at 11:25 AM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
BORN RAISED AND TRAPPED! What are we? We're military BRATS!
(Oh Disney...)
posted by symbioid at 11:32 AM on December 22, 2014
(Oh Disney...)
posted by symbioid at 11:32 AM on December 22, 2014
Just reread the articles: neither of these two women ever served in the military, was the spouse of a military member, nor the child of a military member --- they are both totally and completely civilian. (Well, the daughter did volunteer for a few months as a Candy Striper at Walter Reed, but that's it.)
It'd be bad enough to get this 'Champs' preciousness from another military brat, but from a couple civilians who don't even know what the heck they're really talking about?!? Oh heck no!
posted by easily confused at 11:34 AM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
It'd be bad enough to get this 'Champs' preciousness from another military brat, but from a couple civilians who don't even know what the heck they're really talking about?!? Oh heck no!
posted by easily confused at 11:34 AM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
I died in a little inside when my parents moved from the trailer park near the runway to a house in town. I so loved watching the planes take off - even now, I sometimes run outside when hear one go over.
There is really almost nothing I miss about being an Air Force brat... except for living someplace where you can sit on the balcony in the evening watching planes take off on full afterburner. F-4s back in my day.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:38 AM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
There is really almost nothing I miss about being an Air Force brat... except for living someplace where you can sit on the balcony in the evening watching planes take off on full afterburner. F-4s back in my day.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:38 AM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
even as a kid, I could see their hypocrisy and the way they looked down on enlisted families as a lower species.
I was an officer's kid (living on bases through the 80s), and yeah, there were some fantastically snooty people -- particularly the wives and some of the older kids, who thought they deserved deferential treatment because of their sponsor's O rank. The neighborhoods were segregated to O and E housing, so I think that setup sustained so much of that tension, and it meant that the neighborhood families you hung out with were all uniformly O or E, depending on the neighborhood.
I'm horrified that you were treated this way. Not everyone felt that way about E families, but I know it must have hurt.
I don't know if this helps, but there was even a strict hierarchy among the O's. I remember when an LTC family was assigned to a house on Colonel's Row in Fort Knox. You generally had a choice of 2-3 units and the LTC made what was considered to be a huge faux pas by not taking a house on 5th like the rest of the LTCs. The whole family instantly gained a reputation for aggressive social climbing, even before they arrived on base.
Looking back... You know, we didn't have different swimming pools, but being an O kid, I had access to more buildings on base. Like the cadet gym in West Point. This helped me remember.
posted by mochapickle at 11:45 AM on December 22, 2014
I was an officer's kid (living on bases through the 80s), and yeah, there were some fantastically snooty people -- particularly the wives and some of the older kids, who thought they deserved deferential treatment because of their sponsor's O rank. The neighborhoods were segregated to O and E housing, so I think that setup sustained so much of that tension, and it meant that the neighborhood families you hung out with were all uniformly O or E, depending on the neighborhood.
I'm horrified that you were treated this way. Not everyone felt that way about E families, but I know it must have hurt.
I don't know if this helps, but there was even a strict hierarchy among the O's. I remember when an LTC family was assigned to a house on Colonel's Row in Fort Knox. You generally had a choice of 2-3 units and the LTC made what was considered to be a huge faux pas by not taking a house on 5th like the rest of the LTCs. The whole family instantly gained a reputation for aggressive social climbing, even before they arrived on base.
Looking back... You know, we didn't have different swimming pools, but being an O kid, I had access to more buildings on base. Like the cadet gym in West Point. This helped me remember.
posted by mochapickle at 11:45 AM on December 22, 2014
watching planes take off on full afterburner. F-4s back in my day.
A great airframe, and proof that if you use a big jet engine you can get a brick to fly.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:01 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
A great airframe, and proof that if you use a big jet engine you can get a brick to fly.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:01 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
I grew up a the dependent child of an air-force officer, and I always found the term "military brat" stupid and mildly offensive, so it's funny for me to see people react aggressively to someone trying to change it.
In my experience at half a dozen bases where I lived between 1960 and 1975, separate pools for officers an NCOs was commonplace. It didn't seem odd since there was completely separate housing. Officer family housing was noticeably nicer than enlisted family housing. I don't remember being at any enlisted pools, so I don't know if they differed in quality as well as location.
posted by layceepee at 12:03 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
In my experience at half a dozen bases where I lived between 1960 and 1975, separate pools for officers an NCOs was commonplace. It didn't seem odd since there was completely separate housing. Officer family housing was noticeably nicer than enlisted family housing. I don't remember being at any enlisted pools, so I don't know if they differed in quality as well as location.
posted by layceepee at 12:03 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
There is really almost nothing I miss about being an Air Force brat... except for living someplace where you can sit on the balcony in the evening watching planes take off on full afterburner.
My dad was an Air Force brat too - his dad was a mechanic who worked on, among other planes, B-52s. (For those unaware, B-52s are a long-range nuclear weapons bomber.) Because they lived on a B-52 base during the early Cold War, it was always assumed they'd be a target in a nuclear attack. So he has a few stories about how cool it was to watch the planes take off when it was routine, but when they were scrambled in any way it was incredibly scary - mothers in particular trying to get information while simultaneously trying to not show anxiety in front of their children.
Once one afternoon while he was in the backyard with his mother, who was doing laundry on the clothesline, they heard the sirens and watched the squadron take off unscheduled (they probably knew the schedules better than the brass did). He has a very vivid memory of the plane engine roars growing more distant in the background while hearing mothers all over the neighborhood calling their children. His own mother told him to find his sister and get in the house - just instinctively gathering the family. Alas, Dad was just entering his teens and being smart enough, said sarcastically to the effect it wouldn't matter if they were in the house or out of it because they were a direct target and all going to die anyway.
So she replied, "Well, I'm not going to die with my clean clothes on the line - if you don't care, you can gather the laundry and I'll find your sister, you little shit." That was when Dad knew it was serious because a) his mother never swore, and b) that was the most humiliating thing she could have done to him - women's work. So after he got the laundry and went in the basement, he sat there worrying the whole time the last memory anybody would have of him would be him unpinning and bringing in the family's underwear.
(Dad always concludes that story by saying, "That's what it was like being a brat!" because he really enjoys the word play.)
posted by barchan at 12:46 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
My dad was an Air Force brat too - his dad was a mechanic who worked on, among other planes, B-52s. (For those unaware, B-52s are a long-range nuclear weapons bomber.) Because they lived on a B-52 base during the early Cold War, it was always assumed they'd be a target in a nuclear attack. So he has a few stories about how cool it was to watch the planes take off when it was routine, but when they were scrambled in any way it was incredibly scary - mothers in particular trying to get information while simultaneously trying to not show anxiety in front of their children.
Once one afternoon while he was in the backyard with his mother, who was doing laundry on the clothesline, they heard the sirens and watched the squadron take off unscheduled (they probably knew the schedules better than the brass did). He has a very vivid memory of the plane engine roars growing more distant in the background while hearing mothers all over the neighborhood calling their children. His own mother told him to find his sister and get in the house - just instinctively gathering the family. Alas, Dad was just entering his teens and being smart enough, said sarcastically to the effect it wouldn't matter if they were in the house or out of it because they were a direct target and all going to die anyway.
So she replied, "Well, I'm not going to die with my clean clothes on the line - if you don't care, you can gather the laundry and I'll find your sister, you little shit." That was when Dad knew it was serious because a) his mother never swore, and b) that was the most humiliating thing she could have done to him - women's work. So after he got the laundry and went in the basement, he sat there worrying the whole time the last memory anybody would have of him would be him unpinning and bringing in the family's underwear.
(Dad always concludes that story by saying, "That's what it was like being a brat!" because he really enjoys the word play.)
posted by barchan at 12:46 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
The word 'brat' tends to have negative connotations (it's definition being: a bad, unruly child) and is best known for being an insult against children by others (usually adults) who do not like them or otherwise find them insufferable. It makes sense that others may not be endeared by this term being applied to them and wish to change it.
As a child from a military family, being called a 'military brat' always made me bristle a little because it was a label generally thrown around by adult strangers and came with the assumption (and subsequent treatment) that I was: a) spoiled b) unruly and c) easily dismissed ('less I wish to be seen as a horribly 'unpatriotic' and ungrateful child who didn't support our troops).
posted by stubbehtail at 1:05 PM on December 22, 2014
As a child from a military family, being called a 'military brat' always made me bristle a little because it was a label generally thrown around by adult strangers and came with the assumption (and subsequent treatment) that I was: a) spoiled b) unruly and c) easily dismissed ('less I wish to be seen as a horribly 'unpatriotic' and ungrateful child who didn't support our troops).
posted by stubbehtail at 1:05 PM on December 22, 2014
I too was an Air Force Brat, growing on the enlisted side of Strategic Air Command bases throughout the 70s. I remember in 6th grade my parents thought it odd that my best friend was an Officer's kid. Looking back, it was a little like a bad 80s movie with the rich kid and the poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks being friends. The friendship was 100% based on a shared obsession with sports, and I don't remember the officer / NCO kid thing ever mattering to any of the kids at all. As a kid you earned respect among your peers the same way kids always have; excel at a sport, play guitar, date somebody really popular, whatever.
I will say that growing up a Brat did shield me from a lot of the turmoil of the 70s. The latent racism in society didn't really exist on base. Black, white, whatever, if he was in uniform he was "sir," to me, and he very well may have been a sir to my dad too. There weren't that may places in society then where a minority commanded that kind of automatic respect from whites. I of course, just assumed it was that way everywhere. Although I don't have any specific recollections of the Stars & Stripes filtering news, I also don't remember learning about Watergate or the Vietnam protests in general until I was much older. I was in elementary school for some of that - it should have registered. I assume we weren't hearing much about it on Armed Forces radio and in the pages of The Stars & Stripes.
posted by COD at 1:09 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
I will say that growing up a Brat did shield me from a lot of the turmoil of the 70s. The latent racism in society didn't really exist on base. Black, white, whatever, if he was in uniform he was "sir," to me, and he very well may have been a sir to my dad too. There weren't that may places in society then where a minority commanded that kind of automatic respect from whites. I of course, just assumed it was that way everywhere. Although I don't have any specific recollections of the Stars & Stripes filtering news, I also don't remember learning about Watergate or the Vietnam protests in general until I was much older. I was in elementary school for some of that - it should have registered. I assume we weren't hearing much about it on Armed Forces radio and in the pages of The Stars & Stripes.
posted by COD at 1:09 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
watching planes take off on full afterburner. F-4s back in my day.
America's demise started when they retired the F4s. Historians take note.
My love affair with electronics began with my semi-regular trips to the MARS stations - where a precocious and smart kid would get shown how to work the radios and get to talk to people all over the world. Mind Blown. You could barely make a phone call across the country in those days - talking halfway around the world was amazing.
My first grade teacher told me that it was impossible to talk to my dad in Antarctica, and I had a crying shit fit until she called the station and they confirmed it.
Mom also used a tape recorder for us kids to record messages to Dad and she would send them off to wherever he was. Some have managed to survive the years, and man alive my southern drawl was so thick you could stand on it.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 1:11 PM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
America's demise started when they retired the F4s. Historians take note.
My love affair with electronics began with my semi-regular trips to the MARS stations - where a precocious and smart kid would get shown how to work the radios and get to talk to people all over the world. Mind Blown. You could barely make a phone call across the country in those days - talking halfway around the world was amazing.
My first grade teacher told me that it was impossible to talk to my dad in Antarctica, and I had a crying shit fit until she called the station and they confirmed it.
Mom also used a tape recorder for us kids to record messages to Dad and she would send them off to wherever he was. Some have managed to survive the years, and man alive my southern drawl was so thick you could stand on it.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 1:11 PM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
We definitely had the 'O' pool and the 'E' pool in Little Creek, Virginia in the early 80's. We couldn't have a pool party for the soccer team because there weren't enough Officers kids on the team to get passes for all the Enlisted kids. Officers kids were not allowed in the E pool no matter what. We usually ended up going bowling. (on preview, what Etrigan said)
Why were officers kids not allowed in the E pool?
posted by edbles at 1:45 PM on December 22, 2014
Why were officers kids not allowed in the E pool?
posted by edbles at 1:45 PM on December 22, 2014
I was an officer's kid (living on bases through the 80s), and yeah, there were some fantastically snooty people -- particularly the wives and some of the older kids, who thought they deserved deferential treatment because of their sponsor's O rank.
Oh, I remember wives and kids being given deferential treatment because of their sponsor's O (and E) rank. Wives literally wearing their husband's rank, in the form of a "cute little decorative pin" that just happened to be a leaf in the appropriate color, or an eagle, or a star. And woe be the wife (and husband) who didn't recognize the code. (My parents are convinced that my dad didn't make O6 because my mom had her own career.)
That sort of thing was mostly gone by the '90s (though I was Unofficially Instructed not to attend a meeting with then-Chairman of the JCS Powell's wife after I mentioned in a planning meeting that she held no goddamn rank whatsoever and I didn't see why we should treat her any different from my PFC's wife who happened to share the same first name), but I've seen it perk up here and there again during the most recent wars.
Why were officers kids not allowed in the E pool?
Class-based segregation. There's always some level of O-vs-E segregation, because it's kinda necessary; it's generational and cyclic as to how firm and wide that segregation is and whether it applies to families.
posted by Etrigan at 2:25 PM on December 22, 2014
Oh, I remember wives and kids being given deferential treatment because of their sponsor's O (and E) rank. Wives literally wearing their husband's rank, in the form of a "cute little decorative pin" that just happened to be a leaf in the appropriate color, or an eagle, or a star. And woe be the wife (and husband) who didn't recognize the code. (My parents are convinced that my dad didn't make O6 because my mom had her own career.)
That sort of thing was mostly gone by the '90s (though I was Unofficially Instructed not to attend a meeting with then-Chairman of the JCS Powell's wife after I mentioned in a planning meeting that she held no goddamn rank whatsoever and I didn't see why we should treat her any different from my PFC's wife who happened to share the same first name), but I've seen it perk up here and there again during the most recent wars.
Why were officers kids not allowed in the E pool?
Class-based segregation. There's always some level of O-vs-E segregation, because it's kinda necessary; it's generational and cyclic as to how firm and wide that segregation is and whether it applies to families.
posted by Etrigan at 2:25 PM on December 22, 2014
Another Air Force brat, but I also never liked the term and have never used it to describe myself (I always just say, when asked where I'm from, that my parents were in the military. Interestingly, most people parse that word "parents" as "father", even though my mother held the higher rank). Indeed, my mother was an officer, and my father enlisted, so we got to go to both clubs (mostly I remember the O club as a "fine dining" experience with tablecloths and more genteel music and more (and more specialized) silverware on the table, and the NCO club more like a casual dining place, no tablecloths, louder in general, one fork/knife/spoon wrapped in a napkin instead of a swan on your plate and a fish knife third to the right or whatever. One time someone wrote a nasty letter to the base newsletter complaining about seeing scummy enlisted people polluting their club and we figured they must have been talking about us. The family consensus on the matter was, "Christ, what an asshole." Don't recall there ever being separate pools but maybe we were never at especially large bases, or when we were, we lived off-base and weren't so tied to the facilities there.
Both my high school and house were directly under the flight path of F-111s and I would not say that I remember all the lost time spent waiting for the last jet to finish flying over before you could resume your conversation or the missed bits of TV shows (always some point of crucial revelation, naturally) with particular fondness.
The fawning worship over all things military does always make me a bit uneasy. There is a sign right outside the base I live near that says "Heroes live here" and I always snort and think of the mail clerk in my unit who skimmed two different people's credit cards out of the mail and helped herself to some plane tickets and didn't seem to face any obvious punishment. I always feel like some kind of fraud and never know what to say when people thank me for my service or (once or twice) paid for my meal when I was in uniform or something. I confess though, that I do play the veteran card every single time I write to my congressman or senator.
So back to the point I always disliked brats but I find CHAMPS much more skin-crawly for a variety of reasons and am glad it has died. There is a whole "month of the military child" that is apparently observed to some extent (if AFN is to be believed), and I don't understand why they need to make such a big deal. Kids grow up in whatever environment they grow up in, thinking that it's normal. This effort to carve out and define a group and brand it and make it specifically praiseworthy is weird to me. Or even when I recently returned from Afghanistan on a military flight that was 99.9% contractors, and we were greeted at the airport with applause and cheers and baked goods and coffee and stuff from a group of extremely nice and lovely people who thanked us for everything we did. And while the free food and stuff was certainly welcome coming off the end of an extremely long and unpleasant journey, we all chose to go out there for the paycheck and basically got our reward every two weeks by direct deposit, so didn't really deserve any extra thanks or praise just for living our lives.
posted by Hal Mumkin at 4:29 PM on December 22, 2014 [5 favorites]
Both my high school and house were directly under the flight path of F-111s and I would not say that I remember all the lost time spent waiting for the last jet to finish flying over before you could resume your conversation or the missed bits of TV shows (always some point of crucial revelation, naturally) with particular fondness.
The fawning worship over all things military does always make me a bit uneasy. There is a sign right outside the base I live near that says "Heroes live here" and I always snort and think of the mail clerk in my unit who skimmed two different people's credit cards out of the mail and helped herself to some plane tickets and didn't seem to face any obvious punishment. I always feel like some kind of fraud and never know what to say when people thank me for my service or (once or twice) paid for my meal when I was in uniform or something. I confess though, that I do play the veteran card every single time I write to my congressman or senator.
So back to the point I always disliked brats but I find CHAMPS much more skin-crawly for a variety of reasons and am glad it has died. There is a whole "month of the military child" that is apparently observed to some extent (if AFN is to be believed), and I don't understand why they need to make such a big deal. Kids grow up in whatever environment they grow up in, thinking that it's normal. This effort to carve out and define a group and brand it and make it specifically praiseworthy is weird to me. Or even when I recently returned from Afghanistan on a military flight that was 99.9% contractors, and we were greeted at the airport with applause and cheers and baked goods and coffee and stuff from a group of extremely nice and lovely people who thanked us for everything we did. And while the free food and stuff was certainly welcome coming off the end of an extremely long and unpleasant journey, we all chose to go out there for the paycheck and basically got our reward every two weeks by direct deposit, so didn't really deserve any extra thanks or praise just for living our lives.
posted by Hal Mumkin at 4:29 PM on December 22, 2014 [5 favorites]
I've always hated the term military brat. I'm switching to champ!
posted by bendy at 12:43 PM on December 23, 2014
posted by bendy at 12:43 PM on December 23, 2014
Well surely you mean CHAMP! Don't half-ass it, embrace the term in all its acronymic glory.
posted by Hal Mumkin at 2:31 PM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Hal Mumkin at 2:31 PM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
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posted by COD at 8:12 AM on December 22, 2014