BECAUSE EVERYONE NEEDS A PLACE TO CALL HOME...
BRATS: Our Journey Home A Donna Musil Film Featuring Narration and Music by Kris Kristofferson
UNCLASSIFIED: The Military Kid Art Show Operation Military Brat Order the film
Life as a BRAT

Living Overseas

Not all military brats live overseas, but many do. BRATS: Our Journey Home talks to brats who have lived, among other places, in Vietnam (in 1962), Korea, the Phillipines, France, Iran, Turkey, Ethiopia, and post-war Germany and Japan.

For most, living overseas is an exciting, enlightening experience, but it can also be fraught with danger, and living a traditional American life in the middle of a foreign country can be a bit odd, to say the least. Returning to the United States can be a severe culture shock, as well, because these children no longer have the same perspective as their peers do.


Living Overseas
Photo Courtesy of Gary Gordon and Operation Footlocker


Here are a few excerpts about living overseas from BRATS:

  • "Living overseas was I think the single greatest thing about being a military brat. Just to realize that America is not the center of the universe is, I think, an important thing." - Laird Knight

  • "I got to ride gondolas in Venice... play cat and mouse with my brothers in the Coliseum in Rome. I rode camels around the Pyramids in Cairo. What kid can say that and not realize that he's had a great life?" - Gary Gordon

  • "We knew what had gone on in the camps. We knew what had happened to their families, and we didn't know how to approach them. At least I didn't. You know, how do you approach someone who has been through such a horrific experience? Do they want to talk about it? Or do they just not want to bring it up?" - Joan Adrian

  • "Even though I was only gone about three years, we weren't used to anymore being looked at primarily by race kinds of things... walking into a store and being followed because you're black." - George Junne

  • "I was always out of sync with whatever was going on, with the culture, with the lessons, totally at odd with what should have been my peers, but they never felt like my peers." - Michelle Green
The first documentary about growing up military.