Photo By Troy Miller | Three-year-old Philip Scott, one-year-old James Scott, NNSY Nuclear Regional...... read more read more
This Generation X Public Affairs Specialist always says “I wish I was a teenager again.” Of course, people look at me as if I am insane. Then I continue, “That’s back when I knew everything.” As I look back, being a child, it wasn’t always easy dealing with academic pressure, bullying, peer pressure, challenges with friendships, family conflicts and making sure we got home in time to watch our favorite show, because once it aired, that was that. You would have to wait for summer reruns to see the missed episode because there was no recording it or logging on to the Internet and streaming the missed episode.
Although kids of today may experience some of the issues I had many years (more than I would like to admit) ago, there are issues that our children and teenagers face today that I never had to deal with like cyberbullying, overuse of screen time and trying to separate fake news from not to name a few. However, there are over 1.6 million kids who currently face challenges that most of their peers don’t. Things like moving to a new city, state or country every two to three years; having a parent absent for holidays, birthdays; and having their parents in a combat zone, not sure if they will make it home alive or not. This group of resilient, resolute and relentless children is known as the “military child.”
“To me being a military child from birth to adulthood, it was a lot of moving, not being in the same place for more than three years,” said Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s (NNSY) Pipe Shop (Shop 56) Continuous Training and Development Coordinator Larry J. Greenough. “My Dad [NNSY’s USS New Hampshire’s (SSN 778) Assistant Project Superintendent and retired Command Master Chief Larry G. Greenough] missed a lot of holidays and birthdays; however, he did his best to make up for it by being involved in my brother and I’s school and baseball teams when we were younger and working on cars together when we were teenagers.”
Reactor Engineering Division (Code 2310.3) engineer technician and Larry J. Greenough’s younger brother Nicholas Greenough added, “Sure, we moved about every three years where we had to say goodbye to our friends and go through the normal awkwardness in finding new ones, but we had some great memories too like telling new Navy recruits at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois, to do pushups for us all because our Dad, when was a chief petty officer at the time, was a Recruit Division Commander (RDC) at the Navy’s boot camp.” Nicholas Greenough chuckled as he recalled these memories of his brief time being an honorary RDC when he was seven years old.
Understanding the stresses and challenges the active-duty military member and their “military brats” face, a term this Public Affairs Specialist is told is like wearing the badge of honor, the military offers various resources and programs to help alleviate some of those stresses and challenges.
“The Child Development Centers (CDC) offered to military families are a true blessing for my three-year-old son, Philip, one-year-old son, James, and for my husband [NNSY’s Fleet Maintenance Submarine (FMB) Rubber and Plastic Shop (Shop 57B) Electrician’s Mate (Nuclear) First Class Michael Scott] and I,” said NNSY Nuclear Regional Maintenance Department (NRMD) Electrician’s Mate (Nuclear) Anh Scott. “The workers at the CDC know and understand what military children go through. Plus, not only are they there to support my sons, but they also support us parents by identifying areas that our boys need improvement on and they supply us with tips, tricks and resources to address the issues at hand.”
Child Development Center, Naval Support Activity, Portsmouth team program lead Kendall Lewis added, “When one of the parents of a military child goes on deployment for several months, the parent left at home to attend to the children might not always know what to do for certain matters, because their spouse had always taken care of it or they lack the ‘motherly instinct.’”
“We assist the parent if they need help knowing how to treat diaper rash; letting them know which diaper creams work better for that particular child; and we can provide information for other resources that will benefit both the child and the parent,” said Lewis.
With 24 years of service under Larry G. Greenough’s khaki nylon utility belt with a gold clip and buckle, he offered his best advice to the parents of military children today. “Take advantage of the time you have with your kids, because they’re not with you very long to begin with. Eighteen years go by pretty quickly. You add your deployments and other extended times away from home, which makes spending time with your child all the more important.”
Having served in the Navy for 20 years and having had a military brat of my own, I know it’s tough being an active duty parent and tougher on the child. Thankfully, like military children both past and present being “resilient, resolute and relentless,” aligned with this year's Month of the Military Child theme, my son Taylor Miller, now 33 years old, was all three one-word descriptions for the first 18 years of his life and still is. Even though his son, Asher Miller, is not a military brat, my son is teaching my grandson how to be just that: resilient, resolute and relentless to be successful in his life as well.
This April, when you come across a military child, both past and present, tell them “thank you” for their service. There is no better time than the present to honor the sacrifices made by military families worldwide, with an emphasis on the experience of the dependent children of military members serving at home and overseas. From the bottom of this Public Affairs Specialist’s heart: “Thank you Taylor and all past and present military children out there, for it was your sacrifices and understanding that made it a little easier and a little better to serve our country, the United States of America.”
| Date Taken: | 04.01.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.04.2025 12:24 |
| Story ID: | 494577 |
| Location: | VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 15 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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