Customer Reviews

Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I also found this book to be incredibly insightful. Those 'brats' who criticize the book are apparently ignoring the fact that Mary Edward Wertch is merely reporting what she learned from interviewing real people.

I think it especially struck home for me since I'm a 2nd generation army brat, my mother having been brought up by an army lifer. My parents met in post-occupation Germany, where my grandfather was CO of a US base and my father was a young officer. They married on base there and I was born two years later in New Orleans. The roller coaster ride didn't stop till I left home at 18, but still I never lived anywhere more than three years at a time till I reached the age of 30. I'm still a perpetual traveler, having chosen a career (guidebook writing) that has kept me on the road -- still great at saying hello and goodbye, not so great at the stuff in between.

I certainly have experienced many of the same ups and downs outlined in Military Brats, and like others I found it very therapeutic reading. I generally loathe self-help or pop pysch books, but this one's different - at least for me. My mother and father both refused to read it and I still haven't got my sister to read it. That says something right there ...

Being a writer myself, I know what kind of effort it takes to put together a book like this. Congratulations to Wertch.

As a military brat (OK, a Navy Junior) I have found Ms. Wertsch's observations and analysis applicable in part to my own life or applicable in other parts to my fellow brats. What I recall most of her book is that so many of us choose to serve our country, not necessarily in the military. Many of us are in the social service or caring professions. It is a sense of duty drilled into us from the beginnings. Another significant cultural description she observes is how the "Brats" take on the values of their lead warrior, even if those values and resultant behaviors would be dysfunctional in a civilian society. Those values enculturated by the different branches of the services still influence us in our adulthoods, even though we may have joined civilian life., As a cultural anthropologist I believe she did an excellent job of describing a culture in the ethnographic present. She may not be explicative, but she definitely is descriptive of how we lived and the our parents and our acceptance of the reasons for the rules. Sometimes, I believe that only we, Brats, our peers from other cultures, and the diplomatic corp offspring can really understand what our lives were like and what the lives of our successors are like, even in light of such an excellent ethnography.

A great read, although as many readers point out, it does have a rather negative viewpoint. It may be because I was a brat in the eighties, I don't know. Perhaps because my parents were well aware of the dangers of alcohol and instilled that healthy respect in me. I only spent eight years as a brat, but continued to move at least every two years until I graduated from high school. Fortunately my dad was a terrific father, a peaceful warrior. My parents were strict, and expectations were high, but our family is so much closer than most of my civilian friends'. We brats learn and live by respect, a concept alien to many civilians. This book sent chills of recognition up my spine. It explains so much about who I am, about my terrific people skills and yet the ability to leave best friends behind without a backward glance. It speaks of my unfailing patriotism, that no matter what the President and the government does, I reamain absolutely loyal to my country and the blood of the patriots that built this land. But most of all this novel gives me the hometown I never had. Now when people ask where I am from (that dreaded question for every brat) I simply say I'm an Army brat. A good book, I would recommend it for all brats. For every kid who's ever served (brat or soldier) and those still inside the fortress, a salute.

As a Foreign Service Brat, it is interesting to read how close some military experiences and how far others are from my own, and Wertsch's book was certianly well written. While I enjoyed it and certainly found it well documented, I thought Mary Truscott's Brats: Children of the American Military Speak Out a much better read. I have a problem with the way Wertsch used a metaphor and then ran with it for the entire book. I would say in general that Wertsch's book is a great resource for a person writing a paper, while the human side of the experience is better brought across by Truscott. The one caveat is that Wertsch's book, written much more recently, covers alcoholism and abuse much more in depth. If you read this book and enjoyed it, I would highly recommend Truscott's.

This book changed the way I view myself as a military brat. I've recently begun to research topics related to military families, and military brats. Being an Air Force brat, I have a lot of questions and issues that I'm trying to get through as a result of my childhood. Reading this book was an emotional roller-coaster for me. It made me realize that I'm not the only military brat with the feelings and issues I have.

However, this book is targeted to an older generation. I'm 20 and my father never served in either of the World Wars, he barely served in the mess in the Middle-East. Many of the military brats interviewed for this book had fathers that were wounded (or killed) in WW2. But I've found that most of the information out there for military brats revolvs around that time-frame.

I would recommend this book to any military-brat, especially those that are trying to deal with the effects of their childhood.

It's been over 10 years since I originally bought this book. Mary Edwards Wertsch did not reach her own conclusions about life as a brat, but instead brought together through interviews, scores of of us to share their life experiences. Even at age 53, I still cannot answer a simple question, "Where are you from?" It also clearly documents that life in the military is not a job, but a career experience for an entire family.
This book illustrates the challenges many of us faced growing up and the similarities we have had in adulthood. It also helps brats, like myself, understand some of the public service values we inherited from years of family public service.
I have bought five copies to share with other friends who are brats. The stories in this book served as a unifying experience for all of us.

This is a real page turner for those military brats trying to come to terms with who they are and why. There are so many answers to your nagging quesions (and questions you didn't even know you had). Like others who have reviewed this book I laughed (at both myself and my family) and cried.

My conclusion at the end of the book is that, yes, military brats have obstacles to overcome that most civilian kids don't. How many kids besides military brats are told and know that their dad's job is more important than they are?? I also was able to see the obstacles my parents overcame having kids in a military setting. I realized they did a much better job raising us than I gave them credit for.

Must read as far as I'm concerned.

Signed,

A Proud Air Force Brat!!

I loved every word of this book. It made me look at my family in a new way. All the little eccentricities that I always thought were part of my own family dynamic I now realize were part of the warrior family syndrome. Also the class system of officers versus enlisted men was so ingrained in me, I never looked at it as affecting my life, but now I realize that being the daughter of an enlisted man while most of my friends were officers' kids did have an impact on me. I definitely recommend this book.

I've just started reading Wertsch's book because the references to it seem to appear everywhere in Brat and TCK oriented media. It's amazing to me how much traction she has gotten out of it, because it reflects a totally different world than I experienced as an Air Force Brat from 1952 to 1975, and an Army Officer from 1975 to 2002. Let's crunch some numbers: throughout the Cold War the population of US servicemembers ran between 1 and 2 million, let's say 1.5 million for now. Let's assume that one-third of those SM's were married - that's 500K families - and each family had 2 kids - that's 1 million kids. Wertsch interviewed 80 Brats, which represent roughly .008 percent of our assumed total. Granted, she wasn't trying to perform a rigorous statistical survey, but c'mon; why can't Wertsch present a more balanced view of life as a Brat. I'm sorry she had such an unhappy childhood, but over the 50 years I spent "in the Fortress" I must have known hundreds of families, and I can say confidently that I can count on one hand the number of families I knew of that even faintly resembled the ones she describes in her book.

I grew up the daughter of an Air Force Officer. I am 47 yrs old and at at the age of about 42, I read this book and starting highlighting things that rang true for me. I think I highlighted the entire book. It explained for me, everything about myself that I didn't understand! It truly changed my life... and made me realize why I do certain things, and the lifelong impact a transient life had on me! PLEASE read this book if you grew up as a military brat!