"Brats" - folks like us

"Brats".  It's an interesting term, and I don't know how it came to be associated with military family members, but I can see how it resonates among those who read this blog.  Whether we go back a decade to when Jim Pepitone kicked off a great "back and forth" e-mail chain by posting an item on the movie "Brats" or to the latest group of "Final Toast" responses among which RHS '66er LaRay Watkins commented "Thanks for giving us 'brats' something good to remember and be proud of our Air Force background much more.  So much negative in the world today."

Amen to LaRay's statement.  And to Tom's and Jim's postings that recalled the shared heritage that keeps bringing us back to this blog, and to the people we knew oh-so-long-ago - although it sometimes seems so recent.

Thanks to everybody who has gotten in on either or both of the e-discussions on the "Brats" movie or the "Doolittle Raiders" Final Toast.  (I especially appreciate anybody who has used the "comment" feature on the blog!  Please continue to do so.  It's really easy.)

I think it was LaRay's comment that reminded me of this 17 Jan 1965 item in the San Antonio Express:

Here we see my RHS '65 classmate Bill Bradford commenting that he liked being an AF brat.  I like Bill's maturity, at age 17, in saying "Traveling to Korea, England and various parts of the U.S. has aided my understanding of the world."

I didn't remember reading the article about Bill way back when.  If I had, I could have saved myself some embarrassment.  Here's that story.  

I have to confess that I did not know of the use of the term "brats" for folks like us until I was a cadet at the Air Force Academy in 1965.  One of the upperclassmen asked me where I grew up.  I replied with my stock answer "everywhere".  He paused, and I followed up with "my dad was in the Air Force".  He said, "So, you're a 'brat'?".  "No, Sir!" I remonstrated.  Puzzlement persisted on both sides.  He was using the term as a term of relationship to a military parent.  I was perceiving it as a reference to an inappropriate behavioral pattern.  That's how I learned about the term "brats" to refer to people like us.

Let me close with the link to a video.  For those of us who grew up with military aviation, I don't think you'll regret spending six minutes of your life watching this tribute to those who flew and fought for freedom. The video mixes modern and vintage "film".  Some of you are the children of crew members just like the young men shown in the grainy old film clips.  God bless the memory of those who served then and those who serve now.  Also, the family members who support them.  They are now who we were then - "brats".

http://www.youtube.com/v/RU1oB8sGyYM

Jerry Ball
RHS '65