I grew up as an army brat. However, the only fort base that we lived in was Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. We lived there for a year from 1965 thru 1966. We lived in Lawton, Oklahoma the year before that. I visited Ft. Sill and Lawton in 1997. Ft. Sill does not seem to have changed a bit. However, Lawton seems to have become more economically depressed since I lived there.
I've always wondered how it affected kids to be raised on a military base. Did you find that your life was more limited and restricted due to the lifestyle, or were you able to live like other kids? And did you hear "Reveille" and "Taps" every morning and evening?
This particular base seemed very kid friendly. I used to ride my bicycle all over the area I used to live. In the morning, I would always raise the flag in the back of my house and lower it in the evening. I would always hum or sing a military tune while I did this. They did the same thing down the block where the flag and the cannon were. You always heard Reveille in the morning when they raised the flag and Retreat in the evening. Retreat would always include cannon fire in the middle.
I would not trade the experience of growing up in the service for anything. Used to have a problem understanding people who lived their entire lives in one place - at least until I'd stayed 10-15 years in one place. My kids pretty much lived in the same house, pre-school and school, until they went off to college. When they were little, though, they knew to come home when they heard a bugle sound "Recall". I went to nine different schools in 12 years. I lived in twelve different houses, and one quonset hut, in my lifetime before my father retired, no idea how many different places/houses my parents and older siblings lived in during the 11 years before I came along. In my time we lived in five base quarters, NOB Norfolk, NAS Alameda, CinCLantFlt HQ, USNH Chelsea, NAS Norfolk. Everything else was out 'on the economy' but never far from 'the base'. My wife was an Army Brat and had similar, though Army related, not Navy, experiences. My father was an Army brat (his father retired an infantry COL in 1935) and he and his were also card carrying members of Uncle Sams Wandering Vagabonds and Circus Parade. His favorite post was Fort Strong on east end of Boston Harbor's Long Island where he lived, while around age 10 or so, in the late 1920's while his father was CO 13th Infantry.
