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.

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. 

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.

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.

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