Military B.R.A.T.S.

Frankfurt am 1962

This is me and my mom and dad in New York going to get on the ship(SS Atlantic) to go to Germany in 1959

Hi! I’m new to this group. I recently joined because my father was stationed in France and Germany ’57 – ’60 (he also served during WWII).

My mother and brother joined him and I was born in Germany. I have weekly letters my mother wrote to my grandparents “back home” in the states. Scrap books and such that my mother created while we lived there, mostly about their sightseeing adventures and everyday life. I’d like to find a museum somewhere that would be interested in these items as I am the only survivor and have no children to pass these things on to. Any suggestions are appreciated.

1966 Christmas in Stuttgart Germany heading to the mess hall to eat with the troops!

I’m the big sister on the right. I’m in kindergarten. This is shortly before we moved to San Antonio, TX when our father got posted to Lackland AFB.

Our fellow Brats will understand how momentous this occasion was! Elaine Curry Johnston and I were dear friends at Lackland Air Force Base when we were in elementary school. Pictured left you see us posing in our 4th grade classroom. Many moves and many states later, through the magic of Facebook, we were able to recreate that photo last Friday in Hot Springs, Arkansas! We didn’t manage to stay in touch through our teen years and thought we had lost each other. I am super grateful that we were able to reunite in our eighties! 🇺🇸

In 1961, as a brat of distinction, I fell off my bicycle and scalped myself. Literally. Here is a photo of my mother and me, enormously happy she is at the hospital and not the morgue.

Our return trip from Japan 1954 aboard Gen Gaffey. Way better than trip over in 1952 on basically a troop transport as we ate on long cafeteria style tables with attached seating and we ate with troops!

Plz note clothing as it was all hand tailored. My brother and I had identical sport coats and trousers. . My moms dress all silk with oriental style collar!

This is a picture of Faye and Angela Lovett in Germany in the 1960’s. Our parents were friends and I would love to know if they have any pictures to share.
Mom and Dad at a tea ceremony in Hokkaido, Japan, 1953.

Our dads preferred posts in Germany so we could travel to England …

every summer to visit our relatives. Our favorite was taking the ferry from Calais to the White Cliffs of Dover. One year, we took the hovercraft. Though we liked the speed of the English Channel crossing, we were disappointed the water spray covered the windows and we couldn’t see out. (photo: mid-70s) Anyone else take the ferry or hovercraft back then?

When I was 5 years, my Father was MIS in Korea. His mother got a visit and telegraph in Texas, saying that he had died and awarded a Purple Heart. She began arranging his funeral .My Mom, a devoted Catholic, was on her knees praying he would be found. She eventually got the miracle telegram saying he was found alive in a Tokyo Hospital. We would finally see him after he he recuperated from being shot. He was transferred to an army hospital in New York. I was quite shy and afraid when my mother and I traveled to the hospital to find my Dad. The room was full of nurses dressed in white, the walls painted white and the beds were white metal with white sheets. I could not figure which man was ours…. I grabbed my moms hand and yelled “Daddy”…and all the patients turned to me and tried to wave. My Daddy yelled for us to come to his bed and we all had a great cry of happiness. He lived to be 94.
From 1945. After missing in action for three years in the Phillipines, my uncle (my mother’s brother) finally returns home. My grandfather was there to greet him, of course. Granddad was in the medical corps at that time.
This group has stirred a lot of memores and made me wish I had more photos and written documentation from my early years growing up as an Army brat. My journey “home” always felt like home was when my dad’s posts took us back to Germany, where all three of us brats were born.
I chose this photo to post (I’m top right, left) because 1) it may be one of the few class photos I have. As a brat, sometimes we would arrive after class photos were taken or leave right before they were taken.
While it may have been nice to have those photos, what I will treasure forever is the education I received as a brat. There are always exceptions but for the most part, when I attended American schools in West Germany, the drive to succeed amongst the students was high. All of us wanted to do well in every endeavor and not draw negative attention to our parents (my dad was an NCO).
I always felt like American school teachers wanted us to succeed and did whatever was possible individually to help us succeed. When I attended a “public” school in the U.S., I felt a bit ostracized. One because when asked where I had lived or schools I had attended, public school kids eyes would start rolling when I’d say – what year do you want to know about?
Maybe it was just me, but when we moved from where I attended an education provided by the Department of Defense to a US public school education, I always felt like I was taken one or many steps backwards.
For me, DOD teachers seemed committed to finding ways to grab a student’s attention in ways that would help them succeed. While often in public schools it felt like I was adjusting to a different, lower standard. And if I struggled in a certain area sometimes no matter how hard I tried or sought help – I couldn’t overcome the challenges. And I think attending schools in the 60s and early 70s gave a brat socialization schools with people from a wide variety of backgrounds that was decades ahead of what I experienced in southern public schools.
I believe the American school environment and education helped mold the person I’ve become. My talents are in creative things like writing, photography and if a problem arises, finding a resolution without whining.
Was I just fortunate in the American schools and teachers I had? Or did others in this group feel the same?