When my father, Odysseus, and his men sailed off to the Trojan War, they were confident their gods favored a quick victory. Instead, the siege of Troy lasted ten years. After Troy fell, the survivors made their way home to Sparta, Mycenae, Pylos, and elsewhere in the ancient Peloponnese. Neither my father nor any of his troops arrived home with the rest. We waited for years as the news grew worse. Odysseus was dead, we were told,or imprisoned, or, worst yet, he had married another woman and abandoned my mother Penelope, my brother Telemachus, and me.


If he is alive somewhere, his thoughts may wander to Penelope and Telemachus, but he won’t be thinking of me. I am the daughter he doesn’t know exists. Odysseus went off to the Trojan War when his son, Telemachus, was barely old enough to walk. His wife, Penelope, was a teenage bride, and is now a young wife, mother, and queen who has to try to rule Ithaca without him.


I was born seven months after he left. I am a hero’s daughter and a princess of his realm, but I have lived my entire life without a father. I’m nineteen now, and still waiting.


All over the world, and throughout history children grow up as I have. This website will focus on the children of those men and women who have gone off to fight America's wars, and provide information and resources for all who care about military families and want to help.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

“BRATS: Our Journey Home” Premieres Tomorrow, December 10

 The term “brat” apparently was attached to military children as a result of the British acronym, “British Regimental Attached Traveler. “BRATS: Our Journey Home,” is a film festival award winning documentary  exploring the lives of today’s “brats” and their families.  More than 1.5 million children are “military brats” today, and approximately 15 million Americans grew up that way.
The social and psychological difficulties experienced by today’s military children are growing better documented by the month, and this documentary attempts to educate the public and give military children a voice through the medium of film. “I want this documentary to give families the opportunity to talk about their feelings and share their experiences, and help their children grow positively in a military family environment, even if part of that family experience is traumatic,” says filmmaker and fellow Brat, Donna Musil.  Musil lost her father in the Vietnam war, and experienced not only the death itself but the trauma of suddenly leaving military life as a result of it. 
Musil started a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit group, Brats Without Borders, in 1999 to help create a way for the voices of military children and families to be heard. “Adult brats” experience significant levels of divorce, as well as drug and alcohol abuse, and generally don’t have a means to connect the difficulties of their early life with their current problems.  Musil hopes her film will address this. 
“BRATS: Our Journey Home” is a two-hour documentary narrated by “adult brat,” Kris Kristofferson, and featuring General Norman Schwarzkopf. It can be seen on Discovery’s Military Channel during the month of December. The North American television premiere is on Friday, December 10, 2010, at 9 p.m. EST. For more details about the film go to www.bratsfilm.com
Posted by About AART at 6:38 AM

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