My Story As a Military BRAT - Part 1

My story as a military B.R.A.T. is not an easy story to tell. I want to be super transparent when telling my story but as each day goes by, it just seems to be getting harder and harder to put into words. It is like I know the story so well, but I don’t know it at all. I’m going to do my best, but bear with me.

My story of being a military child technically starts the day my dad enlisted.

June 1998

My dad graduated high school and was shipped off to Boot Camp to join the U.S. Army a week later. He is also a military child – his dad serving in the U.S. Navy. Even though he is a U.S. Navy B.R.A.T., he did not want to be “stuck on a boat all day,” so he chose a branch where he could be on dry land – which he successfully did.

But I’m telling you my story, so let’s fast forward a considerable bit of time.

December 2001

My dad had finished up his time on Active Duty and transitioned to being a U.S. Army Reserve soldier – holding a civilian job at a law firm in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. My mom worked for a real estate company in the same building – which is how they met.

Again, let’s fast forward – to a date the whole world remembers. 

September 11, 2001 

As the planes crashed into the Twin Towers, it was unknown if another plane crash would be coming soon – if it was, the location was also unknown. So, their building in downtown Cleveland was evacuated. As this was happening, my dad was placed on 30-minute recall orders – meaning if his unit were to call him to deploy, he would have 30 minutes to grab his bags and be at the unit – ready to ship out.

He was just four days out from marrying my mom – who was pregnant with me.

As he was leaving the building to pack his bags, my mom was begging him to go to the Justice Center to sign legal paperwork to officially be married. There was no time for that, the bags needed to be packed and he had to be ready at a moment’s notice.

The wedding still thankfully ended up happening as planned – September 15th, 2001.

And then two weeks later, he was stateside deployed to backfill for a unit that had been mobilized.

Again – fast forward.

April 20, 2002

I was born! I am what we military peeps call a “deployment baby” – even though he was deployed, my dad was able to take a Red Cross call and come home for my birth. Not too long after however, he had to go back to finish the deployment.

During my early days, my mom and I were fortunate enough to take trips to see my dad. I was a daddy’s girl from before the day I was brought into this world – so seeing him was pretty awesome. My mom always says I was an active child, but I was even more active when I was around my dad.

Within the next two years, my younger sister, Kaylee, was born – also a deployment baby.

Ultimately, my dad had a knee injury that he needed repaired. He was given the option to have the surgery and medically separate from the military or have the surgery and catch up with his unit that would be in Iraq.

After some conversations were had, he decided to have the surgery and medically separate from the military. Within two years, he got married, had two baby girls, and had been deployed twice – not spending time with his new wife or new daughters.

He began a career as a Corrections Officer at the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department in Cleveland. I spent the next few years of my life not as a military child, as a civilian child – but always a military child at heart.

Growing up I would hear stories of my dad’s service and flip through scrapbooks of when I would go visit him at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. I always knew I was a U.S. Army BRAT and was prideful of the service my dad had given to this country.

Sometime 2009

My dad had begun the process of reenlisting in the U.S. Army Reserve. At the time, I was around seven years old but did not fully understand what it meant when he decided to reenlist. I was very scared and nervous about what the future would hold.

Caused by my anxiety, my mind always (and still does) resorts to the worst of things that could happen, and I knew there was a chance he would deploy, and I would never see him again.

The following weeks and months, I spent a lot of time crying – I could have probably filled the whole Atlantic Ocean. Even the days that he would work his civilian job, I remember crying that he was gone for just 12 hours.

Then passed military training, after military training. I spent a lot of time with my guidance counselor in my elementary school. None of my friends quite understood what I was going through since we were not living in a military community.

August 2011

My dad deployed to Afghanistan. The deployment was set to last 400 days. I knew it was not going to be easy for me. Those 400 days were going to go by really slow. What I did not know, is what was going to come next, but we will get to that later. 

To make the deployment go by quicker, before my dad left, we went to Build-A-Bear. My sister and I each got to pick out a bear and my dad put a voice box in it saying, “I love you, Gracie” – or “I love you, Kaylee.”

We also got a big jar and counted out 800 Hershey’s Kisses – one for each day my dad would be gone for both me and my sister.

Each day passed by. We filled our time going to school, working on projects, sending care packages, and being together as a family – just the three of us though.

Then there was a phone call that changed my whole world.