I couldn't help but notice an article last week outlining how the U.S.Army is going to cut down on the "nomadic" nature of career duty station changes for service members (and their families). This will be a major cultural change for those of us who are proud to be known and referred to as Military Brats.

This new emphasis on "homesteading" will allow officers, enlisted personnel, and their families to remain at, or continually return to, one particular post - allowing the service member more cohesive unit training, while allowing his or her family to develop more traditional "roots".

Here's my "take", for whatever it's worth. I was a military brat, and I wouldn't trade the "nomadic" nature of the first 18 years of my life for anything. I don't remember much about pre-school days in Dallas, Weinheim and Heidelberg, Germany, and Stockton, California. Sometime or somewhere around junior high I lost count of the number of schools I'd attended - from Stockton to Monterey, to Leavenworth, Kansas, to Alexandria and McLean, Virginia, to El Paso, Texas ... and I'm sure I've missed one or two!

High School consisted of El Paso, Frankfurt and Heidelberg, Germany, and Vicenza, Italy. For cryin' out loud, I was Vice President of my senior class at Heidelberg when we were transferred to Italy, where I graduated three months later!

But I wouldn't trade it for the world! On the new "policy shift", the National Military Family Association says it's good news - that it will be less disruptive to a child's education. Well, I disagree. All those moves, and the experiences and diversity of friends and associations was the best education I could have ever received. It's no wonder when I finally settled in a boarding house at the University of Texas, that my roommate, in his wonderful Fort Worth, Texas, accent, called me, "The Furr-i-ner".

Of course, the education included the California flounder, some Chesapeake fishing, a couple of El Paso horse races, and lots of Italian opera and ice cream. And the German beer wasn't to shabby, either!