You forgot military brat. :D  Unlike today, the children of military men, lived on the base in base housing. :)

LOL... brats are just tag along's... sorry if you are one, but they never served. Many do go on go serve like their parent(s), but they just got dragged around the world to where ever their parent(s) were stationed.

And in a way, I feel sorry for them, but in another way... I don't. 

I feel sorry for them because they're always getting transferred from one school to another and never really get to be good long term friends with many other children. 

But I also don't feel so sorry for them in a way because they get to see/visit countries around the world that most kids their age have never been able to see. That opens their eyes to numerous things... in particular, how different foreign countries are than the US, some things better than the US while a good majority... also not better than the US. It gives them a true cultural identity/reality check on who they are which can work to their advantage once they've grown up and joined the workforce!

Actually, I don't really like the term brat, but it's used so much, I guess I've become accustom to it.

FWIW

Interesting take. Having grown up a "brat" I think I can speak to it. 

Yes, we did get to live a LOT of places. I think my culture shock was worse moving from Texas to New Jersey than it was moving from the US to Germany. Luckily we only had to be in New Jersey for a year while we were fortunate to live in Germany for three years. 

Between Kindergarten and 12th grade I went to 18 different schools. We may have moved more than most, Dad was one of those who grew bored with an assignment and would sign up for a new school or qualification course that necessitated we move, and often. Once went to a school for 8 days before we were off in a new direction. It most certainly did make little McGivers out of us when it came to making friends, but it made it VERY difficult to learn how to maintain a long term relationship. 

When I turned 18 it was never a consideration of whether or not I was also going to serve, it was more a matter of which service I was going to go into. Dad started out as a hard hat diver in the Navy, and retired as a helicopter pilot in the Army, with several other jobs and specialties in between. To us it was our life, to others it seemed chaotic and difficult. I saw a quote from a book, written by a fellow brat, that told the story of a military child who someone mistakenly took as homeless, but the child assured her that she did, in fact, have a home, she just didn't have a house to put it in. 

"Home" was wherever the five of us were, not a structure. We loved it that way, and I miss it actually.

Mac

They still do in places where other housing is too expensive.

Thank you for your service and your input.

My grandfather was in the Navy during WWI and my father was in the Air Force stationed in Bitburg, Germany in 1951. That's where he met my mother, got married and took her home in 1955. After he got out of the Air Force (4 years), he continued to work as a civilian contractor for the local Naval Air Station until he retired. I was born in 1958 after he was out of the Air Force, so I don't fit the military brat category.

However, many of my dad's friends and some of my Navy friends who were lifers did have kids and they dragged them to numerous places all over the world.

Interesting that you found New Jersey to be more of a culture shock than Germany.  Was it the Joyzee accent or what? (* CHUCKLE *)

I too, only spent 4 years in the Navy and didn't get married until I got out. So we didn't have any brats either.

FWIW

My two oldest sons were born at the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico, but I got out when the oldest was three years old, so no brat life for them. I was in the reserves after that for another 24 years, but it's not even close to the same, lol. 

New Jersey was less accepting of a new kid from Texas than Germany was to anyone I think. We lived on base in Germany, of course, and went to DOD schools, but we interacted with Germans all the time. I loved it there, 1968, 69 and 70. Watched the moon landings on German television. It was an interesting life for sure.

Mac

As mentioned earlier, my dad brought my German mom home and she naturalized in the US.

But her parents were still in Germany, so I do remember going to Germany... after my father got out of the Air Force several times in 1964, 1970 and 1974. Played with the neighborhood kids quite well too.

My mom taught me German from age 2 so that I could speak with her parents and so in 1964, my first visit, I was 6 years old and had a ball playing with all the German kids in the neighborhood. And then again in 1970 & 1974.

FWIW

Wow... thank you all for your service. So you have several lifers in your family.

It runs stronger in some families than others.

FWIW