A Military Legacy

I know that lots of families have many members serving in the military all over the world. It is one of my family’s proudest traditions and one that I hope continues to be carried down from each generation. I am a second generation military brat. My father was in the Army and his father was in the Army and Marine Corps. My mother’s father was a chaplain in the Air Force. My brother being in the Army will make his kids, when he and his wife have them, third generation military brats. I have three cousins who are or will be in the military and a retired aunt. My girlfriend, Alanna, is in Army ROTC. The military, and the Army especially, is a big part of my life and makes up who I am.

I grew up going to overseas military schools, DODDS, where a zero tolerance violation meant you did not necessarily just get kicked out of school but as a dependent, you got your sponsor shipped home too. You lived on a military base which acted as a little America closed off from Europe. They had a Commissary and PX (a food shopping center and everything else shopping center), a movie theater, a bowling alley, a library, lots of houses, and a chapel. Ah the chapels… a non-denominational service, affectionately known as “General Protestant,” they were great. They had the alcoholic communion wine in the center of the trays they passed around and