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Kailey Holbrook

Dr Malashewski

IB Literature

05 October 2023

To Serve and Protect the Brats

There was a kid I once knew named Will Johnson. He liked to play tag, he played baseball, and

he was a brat. When I was young I used to fear this boy, mostly because of how annoying he

would become during any of our games. My group and I would run around the neighborhood and

hide from him. Yet, I was a brat as well, only a different one. Brats are misbehaving children,

Military Brats are the sons and daughters of those who serve in the military. I was the second

one, never the first. As the daughter of a Colonel I receive many advantages, too many, of

course. I am privileged. I am a Military Brat. I have been called that my whole life, and

sometimes I am just called a brat. I understand, I live off my father’s efforts. I have done nothing

to earn my status nor my life, I was born into privilege. But Will Johnson was a brat, in both

ways. He was disrespectful to privilege, and he had no reason to be.

Military children have privileges, there is no doubt about that, they reap the benefits of

their war-ridden parents. The problem with the title Military Brat is that it guides civilians to

think of us as something annoying. Brat is an acronym, it stands for British Regiment Attached

Traveller. The British seemed to have a sense of humor, but it stuck in the United States after

World War II. Many of the Military Children I have met are good people. They are strong,

resilient, adaptable, and take their privilege with a golden heart. The problem is we are
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represented by people like Will Johnson. “They have advantages many kids do not: parents with

jobs and steady incomes, health care, safe housing, good education systems and access to early

intervention programs” “Experts Explain”. Last year my father had a brain hemorrhage. Not

pretty, and not fun. The medical treatment was severe, and expensive. But what should have

affected my family financially left no impact at all, for we had military healthcare. By the time

my father was out of the hospital, and 6 months later when he was fully recovered, my family

had no debt to repay, a life saved. Privilege at its finest. Even if I was traumatized, it did not

matter. He was alive. It was the same when he went to war, he was alive, and that was all that

mattered. If I acted out or reacted, I was ungrateful. If I acted out I would be a brat.

Will Johnson’s mother was in the army. After a full day at work or a week keeping her

nation safe, she would come home to a brat. Sometimes she would be set off on small briefings

or meetings for weeks, and sometimes she would not come home for a year. Maybe two. Without

a mother, without a complete family, he would be a brat. He would act out. How could he? He

had no right to hate the privileges he got from his mother’s pain.

My father went to war twice. The first time was just after I was born, and the second time

was when I was six. Too young to remember, small enough to notice the absence of love. I was

lucky, of course, to have no memories of those times. I hear stories from my mother and

sometimes even my father, but that is all. We have photos of video calls and letters we sent over,

but that is all. The process of war does not end when soldiers return home. Ten years later, nearly

eleven, the war stays in my father’s eyes. I see it, now and then. PTSD. Dr. Michael Faran,

retired colonel and chief of the Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Office said,

“There's an increase in depression and anxiety [for military children]. There can be a decrease in
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academic performance. In some adolescents, there's an increase in use of drugs and alcohol”

“Experts Explain”. Children know. Every Military Kid I have met knows how to deal with the

stress of a soldier parent. We are naturally resilient people and grow up to stay that way in every

aspect of our life. There are many cases where they take on the parent’s PTSD, and I even find

myself cleaning the house to stop my father’s OCD from spiking. But in cases of brats like Will

Johnson’s, kids break under the pressure of war ridden anxiety from their parent.

I never knew what Will Johnson faced in his home, I never knew what sort of trauma his

mother took into their house, but there was something there. Children match their parent’s

energy. Will matched his mother’s. He carried the stress of a war, and watched his mother, the

warrior woman, battle her demons. But he was a brat, and he had no right to act out for such

things. His life was perfect. He had no right to hate the privileges he got from his mother’s pain.

By the time I was 16, I had moved 9 times. That’s one every two years, a pattern that is

very common for a Military Kid. I went across America, to England, to Germany, to South

Africa, and so forth. That’s a new house, a new doctor, a new school, new friends, a new… well,

everything. These types of circumstances are incredible opportunities, but they are still

damaging. Military Kids become adaptable, but struggle to connect with other kids for longer

than 2 years. They are resilient, but slowly become closed off. The change also brings a new kind

of stress. Not only do we have to go through our teen years with the normal drama involved, we

have to do it multiple times in completely new places. The stress of that causes some unfortunate

results. “I don't think it is uncommon for military children to act out under these circumstances.

But just because they go through difficult times does not mean that we can make blanket

assumptions about military families and violence based on one study” (Clevenger).
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Will Johnson once threw a tantrum at the pool. This was an average summer day in my

neighborhood. Most of the kids there were Military Brats, including me. We played a game, Will

Johnson came over, lost the game, and started to scream. His father was there to take him home,

and the two of them walked out of the pool and back down the street. Will went home to a

homeless house while his mother was hundreds of miles away. Bullets and bombs, Will knew

those words. He was sad, he was angry, and he wanted his mom. He did not hate his life, it had

just become too much. Everything was too much. But he was a brat. A brat with the very best

life.

He had no right to hate the privileges he got from his mother’s pain.

Right?
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Rhetorical Analysis

In my essay, To Serve and Protect the Brats, I used pathos in order to slowly provoke an

emotional connection to my message and used logos in order to support my stories and provide

me with enough ethos for the reader to find my opinions creditable. The goal of the essay was to

start with the idea that Military children are ungrateful brats with privileged lives, and end with

the reader able to see them as kids reacting to their environments.

Logos was the foundation of my paper and helped me transition to pathos as my main

form of persuasion. Facts and statistics are trusted, as are the many quotes I included across the

essay. I referenced quotes from several professionals, such as Dr. Michael Faran, the Chief of the

Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Office, and Margaret Clevenger, a Military

child herself. These were trustworthy sources, and allowed the reader to acknowledge my ethos.

Logos supported my argument and my credibility, and as the essay progressed I slowly turned

away from facts and focused the reader on the stories and anecdotes.

I used pathos in two different ways. First, in my own personal stories. I connected to the

reader through my own privileges, struggles, and experiences, and used my anecdotes in order to

slowly change the reader’s perspective on Military brats. Second, with Will Johnson. The idea

was to introduce this character as the representation of Military brats being brats, and then use

his true story as the transition through the reader’s perspective change. This change can be seen

in the last paragraph with the sentence, “Will went home to a homeless house while his mother

was hundreds of miles away” (3-4). Not only did I include sympathizing topics, such as a mother

and a homeless house, but I started referring to him solely as Will, allowing the reader a more
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personal connection with the help of a shorter name. This change in tone was developed slowly

and with the help of pathos I was able to gain the reader’s sympathy towards Will.

With the help of pathos and logos, I was able to persuade the reader and change their

perspective on Military brats.

Works Cited

Clevenger, Margaret. “We’re Having The Wrong Conversation About Military Brats - Task &

Purpose.” Task & Purpose, http://facebook.com/taskandpurpose, 24 Aug. 2015,

https://taskandpurpose.com/military-life/were-having-the-wrong-conversation-about-mili

tary-brand ts/.

“Experts Explain Mental State of Military Children | Article | The United States Army.”

Www.Army.Mil,

https://www.army.mil/article/147786/Experts_explain_mental_state_of_military_children

/. Accessed 25 Sept. 2023.

“‘Military Brat:’ Do You Know Where The Term Comes From? > U.S. Department of Defense >

Blog.” U.S. Department of Defense,

https://www.defense.gov/News/Inside-DOD/Blog/Article/2060438/military-brat-do-you-

know-where-the-term-comes-from/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2023.