Featuring
The BRATS film would not exist without the hundreds of brats and TCKs throughout the world who opened their hearts and shared their stories about growing up military. The following brats appeared in the film, but there were 500+ additional brats of all races, religions, and branches of service who shared their souls on camera and on paper in questionnaires up to 90 pages typed. That is true bravery. A heartfelt thank you to all of these individuals. You are our heroes.
KRIS KRISTOFFERSON, NARRATOR
Air Force Brat, former Army helicopter pilot, Rhodes Scholar, Golden Gloves boxer, Feeling Mortal, Closer To The Bone, This Old Road, The Highwaymen, Lone Star, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, A Star is Born, and more.
“Most people have a place they think of as home all their lives. But for some, home is not a place, it’s a state of mind.”
GENERAL H. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF
Army Brat, Former Commander Operations Desert Storm, co-founder with actor/philanthropist Paul Newman of the Camp Boggy Creek medical camp for children with serious illnesses, and author of It Doesn't Take a Hero. Rest in peace, General.
“When he left home to go over to Iran, he very ceremoniously presented me the West Point sword and… to a small boy, when your father hands you the sword and says you’re now the man of the house, take care of your mother and sisters, you take that very seriously. I took it very seriously.”
THE "EXPERTS"
MARY EDWARDS WERTSCH
Army Brat Mary Edwards Wertsch is the author of Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress, the 1991 ground-breaking book about growing up military, and how it continues to affect military children well into adulthood. A journalist and independent publisher, Ms. Wertsch was one of the first to identify the Military Brat Subculture as a separate and distinct culture as valid and powerful as any other on earth. Her book helped BRATS: Our Journey Home filmmaker Donna Musil and thousands of others understand "why they are the way they are" and connect with their cultural identity.
“And I mean, if a child fails to get off his bike and just keeps on pedaling, even as Retreat is being audibly played, the child is reported not to his father, but to his father’s commanding officer.”
STEPHANIE DONALDSON-PRESSMAN, M.S.W.
Ms. Pressman is a psychotherapist, trainer, consultant, and internationally recognized author in the field of family therapy. She is also the principle author of The Narcissistic Family: Diagnosis and Treatment, one of the bestselling psychiatric texts of all time, and co-author of The Learning Habit: A Groundbreaking Approach to Homework and Parenting that Helps Our Children Succeed in School and Life. The Narcissistic Family explores the psychological effects of growing up in an environment where children's needs are constantly taking a back seat to other family needs, including the Military Mission.
“With these families, it’s very hard in adulthood for the child to come to terms with what he or she grew up with. They can understand that they had to be sacrificed to some extent to further the greater good... Now, the other area is, how did this affect you as a human being?”
DR. MORTEN ENDER
Army Brat Dr. Morten Ender is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at West Point, United States Military Academy. He is the author of Military Brats and Other Global Nomads: Growing Up in Organization Families and American Soldiers in Iraq: McSoldiers or Innovative Professionals? Dr. Ender has also taught at the the American College of Norway and posted fellowships at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute and the Military Psychiatry Department at Walter Reed. His work has been featured on NPR, the BBC, The New York Times, and The International Herald Tribune.
“The military is the only place in American society where black people and Hispanic people routinely boss around white people.”
DR. GEORGE JUNNE, JR.
“I felt such relief. Finally, I can be myself for the first time in 30 something years…”
Army Brat Dr. George Junne, Jr. is a professor in Africana Studies at the University of Northern Colorado. He is also treasurer of the National Association for Ethnic Studies (NAES) and a former editor for the Western Social Science Association (WSSA) journal. Dr. Junne’s most recent publications are Blacks in the American West and Beyond--America, Canada, and Mexico: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography (2000) and The History of Blacks in Canada: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography (2003). For many summers, he was visiting professor of African American Literature and Film at Bogazici University in Istanbul, and for 26 years, Dr. Junne has spent the summers collecting fossils and acting as director of operations for paleontology field camps for the University of Michigan and Albion College.
