Army brat

"Military brat" and various "brat" derivatives describe the child of a parent or parents serving full-time in the United States Armed Forces, and can also refer to the subculture and lifestyle of such families. The term refers to both current and former children 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 reference a sense of worldliness. Research has shown that most 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.

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 (or in some cases, both parents who are military members) 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 hometown, 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 (living with war-affected returning veteran parents) and the militarization of the family unit (children being treated to some degree like soldiers and being subjected to military regimentation, inculcation into a warrior code of honor and service, frequent exposure to patriotic ideas and symbols, experience of free medical care, and military discipline). Military brats receive completely free medical care until their soldier-parent leaves the service (without a full combat related disability) or they reach the age of 21 or age 23 (depending on the parent's branch of service) if enrolled in college full-time.

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