My experience growing up in the military began for me when I six years old. My father, Robert Vaughn Baker, who had been drafted and served in the Korean War, decided to go back into the U.S. Army in 1962. We were living in Columbus, Georgia at the time. I remember starting the first grade in Columbus and going to school for just about a week. Then we were on two planes and then a jet over the ocean, headed for what was then called West Germany.

Our family took regular weekend excursions and we explored dozens of castles when my father was not in the field. I remember that one year we even found two "Frankenstein" castles, no doubt inspired by the movie. In 1966 we returned to the U.S. on the U.S.S. Patch. After getting our sea legs the second day, we had a blast exploring the ship and trying to get into trouble.

From New York we traveled by car to El Paso, Texas and stayed a year at Ft. Biggs. It was quite a change from Germany, with 1 percent humidity and hardly any rain with sand dunes and tumbleweeds stretching for miles outside the base. We spent a lot of our time patching our bicycle tires because of the sand spurs.

In 1967 my father went to Viet Nam. But before he left, we moved back to Columbus, Georgia and bought a small house. During this year I attended a public school, Rothschild Junior High, and I had some trouble fitting in. Perhaps it was because my father was away for such a long time and I sensed my mother's worry. Or maybe it was just that public schools were different from Department of Defense Schools. There was certainly a lot less discipline in the class room and a different way of doing things.

But distractions such as the space program and a good library helped to pass the time. Viet Nam gave back to us a father who was quieter but prone to explosive fits of anger and our family life was different after he returned. The only time we found out anything about his tour of duty was when we overheard conversations with my father and my uncles during the holiday get-togethers.

1968 brought us to Fort Knox, Kentucky. My father served as a drill instructor for four years. Fort Knox was a nice change from Columbus. We lived on base and didn't have a lot of contact with civilians. We had snow in the winter and there were plenty of pools in the summer and the climate was similar to what I remembered Germany having. I went to Fort Knox High School in the fall of 1970 and my Freshman through Junior years were fairly uneventful, except I co-edited an "underground" high school newspaper which amused a few and made a few school officials mad.

Early in the summer of 1973 my father departed for Germany again. The rest of the family followed towards the end of the summer. My father was stationed in Friedburg. We lived for about six months in a tiny town called Florstadt, and finally got quarters in Bad Nauheim. I attended Frankfurt American High School and graduated 1974. I worked for a few months after graduation and then returned to Columbus, Georgia, where some of my father's relatives lived. I enrolled in the local college and to support myself, I got a job at a local printing company and so began my graphic art career.

Like most brats, every few years I get the overwhelming urge to pack up everything and move. Over the next few 20 years I apprenticed in the printing industry, worked my way through college and graduated from Auburn University in 1984, and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. In 1986, I attended graduate school at the University of Cincinnatti.Since 1987 I returned to Atlanta, started a graphic design business and got online in 1988. Over the years I have moved around the Atlanta area, trying to put down roots as best I can considering my nomadic life.

In the early 90's I explored America Online, computer bulletin boards (BBSs) and even started my own BBS and ran it for a couple of years. I discovered the Internet and used it for publishing newsgroups on the BBS. When the World Wide Web emerged, I felt compelled to start a web site for Military Brats because there really wasn't a site where we Brats could meet and talk.

Which brings me to the present. I'm living in the Duluth area, I'm married and working hard to help Military Brats Online evolve and got a local group going, the Atlanta Area Military Brats. Both MBO and the group have helped me to connect with my past and have given me something which I believe could become a life's work.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the site and know that it truly is a labor of love.