Lonely Pilot Bob

With the pins about to show up this week, I think it time to reflect, ‘Why the BratPin’ at all?  Having been working the project now for almost 4 years, I think I have a great appreciation for ‘Why the BratPin?’  Let me share some of my thoughts on it here this (early) morning.

First of all, like many of you, ‘I lived the life.’  That’s paramount because you touch my soul when you share your stories of your Brat life.  I know of what you speak.  Never thought much about my childhood until I began reading “Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress,” by Mary Edwards Wertsch sometime in the mid-to-late 1990’s.  It took me the better part of 5-6-7 years to get though it as your stories cut right through to my heart.

It was about that time that I also began taking notice of the kids at so many military deployments; Active Duty, Reserve and Guard deployments.  Didn’t matter, the kids faces were all the same in reflecting fear, uncertainty, the anguish of having to say ‘goodby’ to Mommy or Daddy.  And I also noted the joy upon the return of Mommy and Daddy.  Then those damned funerals, and the kids sitting there, sometimes holding the flag… We older Brats, more than anyone else, know what these younger Brats experience.

In his Introduction to Wertsch’s book, Pat Conroy comes right out and says it; “…military brats, my lost tribe, spent the entire youth in the service to this country and no one knew we were there.”  And I thought, “Well, it’s about time!”

And so, specifically, “Why the BratPin?”

First of all, as a small token of great appreciation.  How many of us ‘senior Brats’ ever had Mom or Dear Ole Dad sit down with the expressed purpose of thanking us for what we went through, as Brats?  The constant moving, ever changing ‘homes?’  Continually losing friends?  (And yes, making new ones.)  Always the “new kid” at school?  Opportunity may have been lost on many of us (senior Brats) but it’s now here for the parents of today’s Brats!

How many service members today have thanked their kids – for their service today?  Acknowledging that they are aware of the many hardships being placed upon their kids?

Last year, here in Ohio, we had 5 soldiers killed in combat in one week.  What do you think a BratPin would mean today to those kids today; had a soldier taken his kids aside, and given each of them a pin?  A friend once remarked, “Bob, I can just envision a soldier heading overseas and telling a kid to keep the pin close to his or her heart, as they would always be in their hearts.”  You get the idea…

My kids, my Brats, are 38 and 40.  I don’t think it’s ever too late to recognize them for their sacrifices for me to have the career I had.  I essentially “took it for granted” as they were growing up.  After all, I was a Brat; “shut up, and row!”  (However, I don’t think I was ever that callous.)  But you know, this BratPin – a simple token of great appreciation… Never too late.

Then yes, there is our class; The Senior Class.  LOL!  Everything I’ve mentioned here, we all know.  We all served, without complaint.  We moved, changed friends, houses and schools – often without complaint.  I read recently where someone once observed that military brats spend their entire youth in ‘grief.’  Grieving the loss of one thing or another.  Many of us never “processed” that grief.  If you’re anything like me, you just buried it.  But it was always there, and I knew it was there!  And it wasn’t going to go away until I dealt with it!

Reading Wertsch’s book was the catalyst for me to break through my grief.  And once I did I began to feel ‘pride’ in being a Brat!  A ‘quiet’ pride, but pride nonetheless… (I will admit though, in building this pin with the contributions and suggestions from many of you, my ‘pride’ in being a Brat has swollen quite a bit!)

Finally, this summer I had the privilege of handing out challenge coins we made up for the kids of Vietnam Vets.  The event was the Toledo, OH Vietnam Vet Appreciation Event.  I suppose it was kind of a “test run” to see the reaction…

I was “blown away” with how these were received!  One Vet came up and just stuck out his hand, saying nothing – just looking at me in with his eyes beginning to tear up.  Later in the day he returned and told me that he wasn’t able to speak because he thought that the coin might serve as a “bridge” between him and his estranged daughter.

A Brat told he that he had nothing of his dad’s – that an ex-wife of his father’s had taken everything.  (This kid was in his mid-thirties I suppose.)  He just stood there, holding my hand, looking at me, not wanting to let go…

Then there was the Army Brat from Puerto Rico.  She was a little younger than me; perhaps late 50’s.  We bonded immediately when I told her I was an AF Brat, and had lived at Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico for 3 years in the late 50’s.  We shared a couple-3 stories of growing up, then all of a sudden we looked at each other, and again the tears came as we each touched on buried aspects of our youth.  Then we just stood there and hugged – as if we had ‘found’ each other.  Ten minutes before, perfect strangers!

And so, I do have a great appreciation for what a pin like this will do – and for what it can do!  And this is “Why the BratPin…”

When I began the BratPin project in August 2013, I initially focused on the “BratPin Pin” – just the lapel or hat pin.  Then a little bit into it, it dawned on me that women might not want to put holes in their clothes as much as men don’t seem to mind.  So the BratPin Pendent was created.  It is essentially the same pin, only on a chain.

As time went on and the pins and pendents seemed to be well received, I began thinking about BratPin dog tags.  It was more or less, just a natural I suppose.  I tossed the idea out on Facebook one day and received enthusiastic support.  So, it began…

This is the design I initially sent to my account rep:

…and their first version was:

(At first my account rep wanted to have all 5 service emblems on the reverse of the tags.  I knew, “That dog won’t hunt!”)  With this version I thought I had too much empty “airspace ” on the front, and it was too “busy” on the reverse.  Besides I wanted a tag that could be “personalized.”  So, Version 2:

Now we were getting there – but still “not quite right.”  The seeds on the face of the tag looked like they were being driven onto the world with a fire hose vs. ‘floating’ over the world.  I also didn’t particularly care for “Military Brat” on the face – too bold, too brash for the image and ambiance I hoped to create.  Again, the “whispering” of being Brats…

On the reverse side, there was no room for “personalizing” the tags.  And then, when I saw this I realized I served as a “Brat” in the Air Force; not as a member of the Air Force.  So, I looked for a compromise, and finally settled with this version:

…and I am very happy with it.  Again, for those who offered your suggestions and comments during the design process, Thank You!  I think we created something we can all be proud to wear!

(To keep me ‘on my toes,’ my account rep first offered the Marine Corps version as a “Marine Corp” version.  Holy Crap – am I glad I caught that!  LOL!!!)

So, this is how the BratPin dog tags came about…

I am proud this morning – proud of what ‘we Brats’ have been able to do here in 2 months – what our Congress has been either unwilling, or unable to do in over 3 years – create a icon that represents and honors Military Brats!  The BratPin.  As of this morning, 21 October 2013, the bill still languishes “in committee,” with a 2% chance of getting past committee, and a 0% chance of becoming law.  And today, we have “our” pin.

In April this year I attended a Dining In, where I heard a ‘3-Star’ tell about seeing “the blue car” come to his house when he was 7 years old – to tell his family that their father had just been shot down (in Vietnam).  At that dinner I committed myself to the passage of HR 1889: Children of Military Service Members Commemorative Lapel Pin Act this year!  I told myself I was going to do “something” every day; to create awareness and promotion of this bill.

I began by “re-energizing” my US Representative, Bob Latta, R/OH, who introduced the bill, by visiting his office in Bowling Green, OH.  He wasn’t in, but one of his staff assured me that “the Congressman” was totally behind the bill.  Then I visited Marcy Kaptur’s office in Toledo,OH, D/OH, who is a co-sponsor of the bill.  And again, I was assured, by a staff member, that Ms. Kaptur was also “totally behind” the bill.  This guy was actually very helpful in that he explained exactly what I/we would have to do to garner support for the bill – telling me that the process could take upwards of 10 years to come to fruition!  That wasn’t what I wanted to hear; in 8-10 years I might be a “mort!”  I really don’t care to have my pin presented to me posthumously!

In July I made a You Tube video, essentially promoting HR 1889.  After the filming, the interviewer asked, “Don’t you think 3 1/2 years of ‘sitting in committee’ isn’t a bit disrespectful toward these kids?  You bet your ass I do!  Then he asked, “Why don’t you just design a pin yourself?”  and that’s where I decided to take a different direction.

And today, we have out pin!  The BratPin.

Am I “spiking the football” here this morning?  You bet your ass I am!  I am so proud of what “we” have created here to honor ourselves, and all Brats!  It is also with great humility that I thank all of you who contributed to this project. As I have said all along, I didn’t do this alone… I hope all of you share in the pride of this effort this morning…

(I ‘pulled’ this off another blog I manage; bratpin.com.  After the first of the year I plan to hand the whole operation over to a ‘non-profit’ that supports military children.  There are a couple-3 posts I don’t want to lose…)

In December 2009 I asked my US Congressman, Bob Latta, (R/OH) to introduce legislation to the Congress to recognize and honor Military Brats.  At first I was thinking in the form of a medal of some kind or another.  Then I learned that Congressional medals (in the nature I was seeking) are reserved only for “serving military members.”  After 5 months, to his credit, he introduced HR 5333: Children of Military Service Members Commemorative Lapel Pin Act, (2010).

At first I wasn’t shot-in-the-head with a lapel pin – aren’t those for old guys?  Then, the more I thought about it, the more it appealed to me.  I learned early in life, ‘when the handwriting is on the wall, learn to read it!’

One of the provisions of the proposed legislation was to send the bill to the Army Department of Heraldry upon passage – for design, and approval of the pin.  “Oh crap,” I thought to myself, “I can only imagine what those ‘shoeclerks’ (bureaucrats) will come up for us!  After all, right from the very beginning, ‘they’ attempted to diminish a bit of our charm and identity by referring to us as “the children of military service members,” vs “military brats!”  (I can ‘appreciate’ that not every child of a military service member embraces the term ‘military brat,’ but I do – and that is what is important here!  LOL!)

Then it wasn’t too hard to imagine a very formal, government conference room wherein a collection of self-appreciating bureaucrats could congregate to design “our” pin.  Can you imagine the “bickering” that would have evolved?  Each shoeclerk with his or her “special” interest.  Why, we would need to all kids represented – be they white, black, Asian, Lutheran, LGBT, ‘special needs,’ what-ever!  By the time everyone got their “special interest” inserted into the design, the damn pin would have been the size of a medium pizza pan!  So this summer, when I decided to “go it alone,” I wasn’t too torn up that I would be bypassing the Army Department of Heraldry.

Sometime during the summer the “dandelion” came to my attention as a contender for the pin.  Again, I wasn’t all that shot-in-the-head with idea, but the more I thought about it, and read about it, the more sense it meant to me. And so I began looking around for dandelion ‘concepts’ to use… I wanted something with a dynamic vs. a static look about it – a design that reflected movement.  After all, we are so very transient ourselves.  This was the first design I looked at:

About the same time I began considering the image, I also began to concern myself with the shape of the eventual pin.  I wanted a pin that would be easily recognizable in shape – like an oval.  So, to get that, I had to ‘lose’ the figure blowing the seeds – yet I liked the concept of the seeds scattering to the winds… so, I essentially took a “puff ball” and had an artist “pull the seeds” out in the form of an arch.

So, the first version came out like this:

Kinda ‘boring,’ huh?  Then it was suggested (by Mari) that we add a dog tag chain as the border.  And Steve suggested we add the word “American” on the back.  So, Version 2 came out like:

Two things I was not happy with: 1. the dog tag clasp looked like bailing wire and 2. the ‘order’ of the wording on the back of the pin – I wanted the word “American” featured more than the web site address.  So, back to my Account Rep I went again – and soon, Version 3 was came out:

He got the back fixed, but ignored the clasp.  (He must have thought I would miss it.  I didn’t!)  And so we continued to dance – round and round we went.  He told me it wouldn’t make a difference when the pin was produced, but I wasn’t buying it.  So I contacted a dear friend who is a graphic artist and he came up with this:

I sent this design to my Rep, and asked him, “How hard can it be?”  Finally, after being beat like a rented mule, he acquiesced and we went into production!

Today I am pretty happy with this design – simple, yet elegant!  And I think it does represent the Military Brat; with a sense of reverence and honor.  I deliberately kept the wording, “Military Brat” off the face of the pin because we will soon know who we are, and that is what is important!