Military brat (U.S. subculture)
In the United States, a military brat is the child of a parent or parents serving full-time in the United States Armed Forces, whether current or former. The term military brat can also refer to the subculture and lifestyle of such families.
The military brat lifestyle typically involves moving to new states or countries many times while growing up, as the child's military family is customarily transferred to new non-combat assignments; consequently, many military brats never have a home town. War-related family stresses are also a commonly occurring part of military brat life. There are also other aspects of military brat life that are significantly different in comparison to the civilian American population, often including living in foreign countries and/or diverse regions within the U.S., exposure to foreign languages and cultures, and immersion in military culture.
The military brats subculture has emerged over the last 200 years. The age of the phenomenon has meant military brats have also been described by a number of researchers as one of America's oldest and yet least well-known and largely invisible subcultures. They have also been described as a "modern nomadic subculture".
Military brat is known in U.S. military culture as a term of endearment and respect. The term may also connote a military brat's experience of mobile upbringing, and may refer to a sense of worldliness. Research has shown that many current and former military brats like the term; however, outside of the military world, the term military brat can sometimes be misunderstood by the non-military population, where the word brat is often a pejorative term.
Primary features of lifestyle and culture
Studies show that this group is shaped by several forces. A major influence is the fact of frequent moves, as the family follows the military member-parent who is transferred from military base to military base, each move usually being hundreds or thousands of miles in distance. Other shaping forces include a culture of resilience and adaptivity, constant loss of friendship ties, a facility or knack for making new friends, never having a home town, and extensive exposure to foreign cultures and languages while living overseas or to a wide range of regional cultural differences due to living in a variety of different American regions. Additional influences include living in a series of military bases serving as community centers, the pervasive military culture on those bases, the absence of a parent due to deployments, the threat of parental loss in war, stresses associated with the psychological aftermath of war and the militarization of the family unit. Military brats receive Tricare until they reach the age of 21, or age 23 if a full-time student, or age 25 if Tricare Young Adult is purchased.While some non-military families may share some of these same attributes and experiences, military culture has a much higher incidence and concentration of these issues and experiences in military families as compared to civilian populations, and by tightly-knit military communities that perceive these experiences as normal. Studies show that growing up immersed in military culture can have long-lasting effects on children, both in positive and also some negative ways.
Life on base
Military bases are often small cities, sometimes with 10,000 or more people, and are self-contained worlds where military culture is primary and civilian culture is secondary. Military families do not always live on base, but often do. Military towns, the areas immediately surrounding a base, are also often highly influenced by military culture. While the general public uses the term base to refer any military installation, within the US military the term base primarily applies to Air Force or Navy installations while Army installations are called posts.Military brats grow up moving from base to base as they follow their parent or parents to new assignments. Sometimes living on base, sometimes off, the base in both cases is often the center of military brat life, where shopping, recreation, schools and the military community form a string of temporary towns for military brats as they grow up.
Image:US Navy 020813-N-3235P-520 shopping at the commissary.jpg|left|thumb|Two military brats shopping at the commissary, located on the military base. Bases are often self-contained towns, with shopping, schools, hospitals, recreation centers, movie theaters, etc.
Studies show that the culture on military bases is perceived by most current and former military brats as significantly different from civilian culture. It is widely experienced as being pervaded by military cultural norms and expectations, as well as the presence of military police or their other military security forces equivalents, armed guards, high security zones and some degree of surveillance. Some bases also contain unique features, such as air bases with numerous aircraft and attendant noise, or seaports with large numbers of naval vessels. Balancing this are extensive areas which are more relaxed in character, for on-base housing, shopping, dining, recreation, sports and entertainment, as well as base chapels which host diverse religious services. However, military regulations, laws and social codes of conduct are in force throughout the base, which can be very different from local, state or national laws, regulations and customs.
Military language also has differences from standard American English and is often peppered with military slang and military acronyms. There are many words and phrases that are unique to the military world and which make up a part of everyday conversation on bases. For example, time is measured in 24-hour rather than 12-hour segments as in the civilian world, and distances, primarily on stateside Army posts or on many U.S. bases of all services overseas, often described in meters and kilometers instead of yards or miles. Consequently, many military brats report feelings of cultural identity that have a military flavor and a feeling of difference from local civilian culture, even on bases in the United States. These feelings of difference can also be made more complex by virtue of having absorbed varying degrees of overseas cultures and also different regional American cultures while living in different places as a part of the military brat lifestyle.
Bases do form communities, but due to most of them experiencing frequent 100% turnover in just a few years, an adult military brat can never return and find old friends, neighbors or even former teachers, on bases where they grew up. Base schools usually have an even higher turnover rate, reaching 100% turnover in as little as two years. Due to revocation of base privileges upon reaching the age of 21, access to bases to reminisce or reconnect with one's places of growing up can also be difficult.
Size of population
Although no exact figures are available, the U.S. Department of Defense estimates that approximately 15 million Americans are former or current military brats, including those who spent all or part of their childhood and/or adolescence in the lifestyle. This population includes an age range from less than 1 years old to over 90 years of age, since there have been military brats for generations. Many military brats spent all of their growing up years in the active lifestyle, some for only part, although military family issues, dynamics and influences may continue nevertheless. Also, not all military brats grow up moving all the time, although many do.Studies
Military brats have been studied extensively, both from the perspective of social psychology and as a distinct and unique American subculture, although less so in terms of long-term impact of the lifestyle. There are also some gaps in studies of more recent military brats. Collectively these studies paint a fairly consistent picture of how the lifestyle tends to influence the population in various aspects of life. These studies look at overall patterns and individual experiences may vary widely:Positive patterns in overall study results
Some strong positives that have been identified in studies of military brat populations are a high occurrence of very resilient personalities, exceptional social skills, a high level of multicultural or international awareness, proficiency in foreign languages, and a statistically very strong affinity for careers that entail service to others. Studies show that ex-military kids end up pursuing service-related careers in very high numbers: military service, teaching, counseling, police, nursing and foreign service work being highly represented in military brat career statistics. Mary Edwards Wertsch also identified a pattern of work that is more independent and along those lines also favoring creative and artistic professions that offer more independence. She also reported that for those military brats who did choose military service there was a tendency to go through a phase of bucking or testing authority during military service, or a pattern of resenting authority, represented in her study population. However, military brats who become soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, Space Force guardians, or coast guardsmen also tend to do well overall in the profession.As adults, military brats can share many of the same positive and negative traits identified in other populations that experienced very mobile childhoods. Having had the opportunity to live around the world, military brats can have a breadth of experiences unmatched by most teenagers. Regardless of race, religion, nationality, or gender, brats might identify more with other highly mobile children than with non-mobile ones. Military brats also graduate from college at a higher rate than the civilian population and divorce at a lower rate.