I have being going through some of these sites and I have to say how surprised I was at some of them. I never would have thought that there was an official site devoted completely towards kids of the military. I have been poking around this site and they have everything from how to cope with the change to what to do before you move. They even say that you should backup your computer before you move and show you how. They have short stories from other military kids as well as what to expect at your new home. I think it is good that the military has taken the time to make this type of resource for the kids of the military. I know as someone who has moved a lot that this type of site would be helpful and comforting to a child who is faced with another move.
There are some many different types of military installations that it is difficult to image life on one particular base. After looking at these sites I believe that military carefully plans the lifestyle of its soldiers and their families when stationed both abroad and in the US. From my personal experience I have seem bases such as those we saw on Okinawa but also bases that were more restrictive and did not even allow dependants of soldiers to live with them. When I was living in Germany for example, many of the bases were made to look very much like suburban America. All the houses were nicely lined up with American architecture, there were baseball fields around and even an American grocery store. They even brought American toilet paper to Germany. There, it was literally like an artificial American neighborhood in the middle of Germany.
When I was living I Qatar the US military bases were quite different. No military personnel were allowed to bring their dependants so there was virtually no housing. It made the bases smaller and they looked much less “American”. I think that life on a base must greatly depend on where it is and what kind of life the military designs for its soldiers. Seeing all these sites really makes me think that the military goes to great lengths to really design the lifestyle for its personnel.
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That is a really good point about bases being able to seem like home for some people and I wonder why the military makes some bases look more Americanized than others. I also agree that having websites like these may be able to help families cope with yet another move, and the feeling of familiarity when moving somewhere new can be comforting as well. I never really thought of family members of people in the military and how moving all the time is difficult for them as well. I also wonder how people in the military explain to their kids why they keep moving, and how much they divulge to them about what exactly their job entails. It is interesting to see how much effort the military puts into making a base be comfortable for its soldiers and the family of soldiers.
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