Novelist Pat Conroy, whose father was a career officer in the Marine Corps, once wrote "Military brats, my lost tribe, spent their entire youth in service to this country, and no one even knew we were there." Children raised by parents who were longtime members of America's armed services, "military brats," often led a life very different from that of most kids their age -- they moved frequently, sometimes lived and were schooled on military bases, grew up in the distant shadow of war or history-making events, were subjected to an authoritarian discipline that was the antithesis of a carefree childhood, and often felt as if they were raised in a single-parent family while either father or mother was away on assignment. The emotional trials of growing up as a military brat and the little-explored bonds of those who shared this upbringing are examined in the documentary Brats: Our Journey Home, written and directed by Donna Musil, herself an Army brat whose father was a military judge. Brats includes interviews with General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Mary Edwards Wertsch, Dr. George H. Junne, Michelle Green, and Marc Curtis; the film is narrated by and features songs from Kris Kristofferson, who like the aforementioned interview subjects was the child of a parent in the service.
by Mark Deming
synopsis
