Category Archives: Military Brats

DeeDee’s Story: A Military Brat Part 2 of 6

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Change Inevitably Happened

Looking back to 1980, our entire family was unknowingly, unprepared for civilian life. I suppose my parents had a better handle on it since they were both born to civilian parents. (Mom’s dad had been in WW-II when she was born). As for me and my siblings we could have used some coaching before we were planted in land-locked, southern, rural Alabama beside Fort Rucker (an Army post).

Me as a Rota cheerleader, upper right in the back row
1980 – me and my besties!

Military to Civilian Life

My mom had spent her first twenty years of marriage as a Navy wife, then she was surrounded by Army lifestyle, Army personnel, Army wives, Army dialog, everything all Army. The rural environment was not her cup of tea. She had grown up between the Tennessee mountains and the Virginia coastline. Alabama was as foreign to her as it was to me.

Dad was originally from Alabama but his time away in the Navy had changed him from a country boy to a man who had traveled the oceans, crossed the Equator, cruised around the tip of Africa, lived in foreign countries, rode a camel, learn to speak two other languages, married a Virginia girl and had three kids. He had changed. Life for him was different from when he left in order to escape his father’s summer plans for him to work the land, cut down trees, and be the son who stayed.

As we all struggled to find our place, my little sister was often overlooked. The youngest, the quietest, the smallest she needed us the most. We didn’t see her forest for our trees. Life was not the same. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t wrong. It was simply different than we had experienced and expected. We were no longer in a military environment living in the country.

Me and my siblings on a bunk. Our quartes were always a different size and my parents were pros at getting us settled in. We are sitting on the top of the bunk my dad made. It had three beds. We thought were so cool.

Military Brats are Comfortable with Change

Military Brats are comfortable with change. We know change is inevitable. What was hard to understand was in our own country – the one we’d always been so proud of were:

  • People who knew and lived near their relatives while we struggled to understand the role of a cousin.
  • Understanding county and state lines after years of studying the local history wherever we had lived.
  • Kids driving at a much earlier age with customs, sayings, and so much more different from we knew.

Stay tuned for more of DeeDee’s story of life as a military brat. Part 3 is September 8, 2022.

DeeDee’s Story: A Military Brat Part 1 of 6

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The Beginning

My story begins like so many of ours do. I was the second child born to my Navy dad and Southern mama in the Portsmouth Naval Hospital. The oldest, my brother John, was born in the same hospital just nineteen months earlier. I’m unsure how many moves my folks did between the time of mine and John’s birth. I do know, two years after me the third kiddo came to be. The baby of the family was born in Key West. The only child our dad was not at sea for the birth was Barbara, but he still missed her busting into the world. He had 24-hour duty and needed to get some shut eye.

Smith Family in Key West, FL
Mom keeps the dependents busy.

That’s me in the middle checking out what my brother is doing. Monkey see. Monkey do.

My Dad

I’m proud of my dad’s twenty-year Navy career. He was a CT-I (cryptologist, interpreter). He retired as an E-6 and spent most of his time between tours in Spain, Florida, and a ship. I grew up thinking everyone’s dad left for six months at a time because all my friends’ dads did too. My mom worked at different jobs wherever we lived. Most of her time and effort was focused on keeping the three “dependents” from running wild while holding down the home front. 

John and Nancy Smith on their wedding day

Where is Home?

As a Brat, I lived in or at

  • Fort Meade, MD
  • Rota Naval Station – Rota, Spain
  • Homestead Air Force Base – Homestead, FL
  • Key West, FL
  • Fort Devans, MA
  • Fort Ord, CA
  • Portsmouth Naval, VA
  • TN, AL, VA – when my dad was at sea – Mom took us to wherever her family lived. Her dad was a traveling bricklayer.
  • I know there are more places but these are the ones I know of. Some I remember. Some are only photos in albums labeled by place, date and names of people in our lives for a season.
My Dad in his white uniform. I remember him trying to protect his from my clumsiness. It never worked.

Dad did two tours (with extensions both times) in Rota, Spain between 1969 and 1980. We lived in Spain for nine of my sixteen years. Rota was the place I thought of as my hometown and still do. The last time I lived stateside I was eleven. I loved Rota and cried a lot of tears when Dad put in his retirement papers. I was in the middle of my Junior year of high school unknowingly unprepared to live as a civilian’s kid.

Mom’s Passport photo with kids

Stay tuned for part 2 of DeeDee’s Military Brat story releasing on Tuesday, September 6, 2022.