"Home is wherever the Air Force sends us."

I learned quickly the positives and negatives of living the military life. Although not the way one might expect. Each day started with the loving sound of my mother's voice and certainly not the bustle of a blowing bugle. Though not trained in hand to hand combat, I became finely tuned in the self defense arts with my older brothers as my personal drill sergeants. I got a free pass on boot camp in lieu of scout camp in the summertime. However, on the other hand, I did have to learn at a young age how to 'be all I could be.' No easy task for an eight year old.

My family had already been a military family for some time when I came along as the youngest of six children. I said 'aloha' to life on Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii. As though the Sandwich Islands in the middle of the Pacific were not exotic enough, we shipped out (or shipped in, depending on your point of view) as I turned only a year old. We then embarked on a four year stay in the Netherlands. While there I learned the importance of clogs, windmills and every cheese imaginable. After the excitement of churning butter was over, it was onto Germany for another five years before returning to the grand old USA; Arizona to be exact. From there it did not take long for our family tour of duty to end as my father retired, but not before one final move to our new home in Houston, Texas. Where else would a retired Air Force officer go to work but for the United Space Alliance, or more commonly, NASA?

Finally returning to live in the United States was a bit of a shock to my system. Who knew that homes came with closets built into the walls instead of armoires or schranks? In Germany and France, taxes on homes were partly calculated by how many rooms you had in your home. Since closets technically counted as additional rooms, therefore increasing your taxes, in many parts of Europe, homes were built devoid of permanent closets. If you wanted to hang your clothes up, large, moveable closets were required in those homes. There were many small inconveniences similar to that living in Europe. Bright yellow and orange school buses were something I'd only seen in the movies before joining the contiguous 48. As I went to grade school on the air force base, we rode in old retired city buses that smelled of old cigarette smoke and that old lady who just rides all day and never gets off at her stop. Unfortunately, yes, they indeed have her in other countries as well. Nations divided by the Atlantic have more in common than you would think. There were other obvious disadvantages to my childhood in the military. With every move came new customs and laws to learn, besides just the tedious packing and unpacking. It was also quite pesky to not speak the local language. Imagine trying to get a man to stop and ask for directions when he doesn't know how to ask in the first place. Of course the polizei might stop you themselves if speed limit signs ever got mistranslated, since they are posted in kilometers per hour, not miles. They might have well have been listed in 'knots' for all a foreigner in an American car can do with that information. As for the traditional German food let's just say the cuisine, at times, left something to be desired. The most unexpected difference, however, was being the minority. While Oktoberfest is common place, the neighbors would stare holes during the backyard Thanksgiving Day football games. I remember feeling lucky to have three English speaking friends within two miles of my home. Who cares if you wanted to be friends, beggars could not be choosers in those days.

For all the inconveniences and hardships created by that unique experience growing up, when the time came to say "Auf Wiedersehen", it wasn't necessarily a joyous occasion. There were many things I would most certainly miss from my home abroad. Amazingly, many of the cons themselves I would come to miss in later years. In school, it was mandatory you took German three days a week, even in elementary school. Although the memory is of not enjoying it at all, years later I find that I have forgotten more French, German and Dutch than many people will ever learn. With even the limited vocabulary of my sparse amounts of German and my foreign peer's feeble attempts at English, we found ways to communicate. Although the customs were a bit of a struggle, it was wonderful to experience the change of pace in culture, despite not knowing it at the time. The World Cup of soccer takes on a little bit different meaning when you are in Europe. Although not completely keen on all the traditional German food, there are ways to be able to pick and choose to discover the ageless favorites that travel alongside wherever a stomach may wander in life. You can take a ten year old boy out of traditional Germany, but you can't take the love of traditional German food out of the boy in even close to ten years. There were of course the obvious reasons to love life overseas, as well. All the sightseeing a heart could desire. A personal favorite involved the castles of Germany. The same castles year after year, and never once were they boring. They were amazing structures that concealed unique pieces of history within each of its own walls. From moats, iron gates, towers, and even dungeons to the most spectacular of landscape horizon beauty. Best of all, wherever you went, whether it was the Eiffel Tower or the Rhine River, you could get souvenirs. My parent's home sometimes seems like a museum these days. Not because everything inside is old and dusty. Touching is as acceptable as looking, as well. That home has history from so many different places. You'll find beer steins from Germany, nutcrackers from the Czech Republic, wicker furniture from the Philippines and even my childhood clogs from the Netherlands.

There were definitely drawbacks to the military lifestyle. However, the great far outweighed the bad in the end. I have not been back to Europe since we departed when I was ten. I dream of seeing my birthplace someday in Hawaii, perhaps on my honeymoon. Until then, I keep the memories in a special place in my heart. I'm just glad that when I said Tot ziens to Holland, Tscheuss to Germany and Aloha to Hawaii, some parts of each stowed away in the luggage compartment of my life.

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