545987

Very informative. I appreciate the perspective it highlights! Happy Thanksgiving all!

While I understand the issues that are brought up throughout this piece, a significant number of the points are starting to sound like a broken record.
The problems that we have today are exasperated by opinion pieces like this. You strip out all of the features identifying that this person is a woman, and you can duplicate this day in and day out across the board, whether or not you are male or female, colored or white, or any other trait that you desire to choose.
This also applies to the equal pay argument as well, strip away the references to gender or sex, and lay to records side by side.
And the crack about being a Brat, is also annoying. Being a Brat for 18 to 24 years, whether it is as a Military Brat, or what is classed as a Third Culture Kid, they have a unique set of challenges that this author (and partially myself - I am a Brat) either cannot or is unwilling to even acknowledge. And this does not even cover the aspect of the purely civilian spouse and their problems and issues that they have to deal with.
I would suggest that the author of the referenced article and any other individual should read some writings on these unique and not so unique challenges. First - "Military Brats: Legacies of Growing Up Inside the Fortress" by Mary Edwards Wertsch, it is available from a number of sources to include your local library, local book store, and on-line. In conjunction with the book, you should also obtain a copy of and watch "Brats: Our Journey Home," a documentary by Donna Musil (whose husband, a civilian Brat, is a friend of mine). And then read some of the writings of Pat Conroy; The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, and The Death of Santini.

I forgot to mention another piece of writing, that could help - "In the Company of Men: A Woman at The Citadel" by Nancy Mace. (This I did not know - Pat Conroy dubbed her work the “best book about The Citadel ever written…”) Nancy is also a friend, and I would be remiss if I did not state that she is running for office in South Carolina for the S.C. House District 99 (for those of you in SC and in that district).