History Main / MilitaryBrat

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', Commander Shepard can be one if you choose the "Spacer" background. It's the only background choice where Shepard isn't an orphan, as the background specific sidequest reveals that Shepard's mother is alive and still serving with the Alliance as the Executive Officer aboard an Alliance Dreadnought. By the second game she is a Captain, and in the third she has been promoted to Rear Admiral after surviving the initial Reaper invasion and is now serving directly under Admiral Steven Hackett. Shepard's Father is also mentioned as a military officer in this background, [[DisappearedDad but is never mentioned again beyond the opening line.]]

** This is actually standard for the Turians, as they're SpaceRomans with significant emphasis on merit and duty. Every citizen is either a member of the military or a reserve member that can be called back into service at any time. All able-bodied individuals are conscripted into the military at the age of 15. (Implied to be the turian age of Legal Adulthood) They then serve for 15 years until they reach 30, at which point they have the choice of either remaining in the military or leaving to do something else but becoming a reservist. [[TheLancer Garrus Vakarian]] is no exception, as his father was a military man and a distinguished Citadel Security officer, and although we never get a specific rank, the third game does reveal that Garrus is a very high-ranking officer when there are ''Generals'' saluting him. It's also heavily implied that he is very close to being the next ''Primarch'' (the turian rank of Supreme Commander/Commander-in-Chief) should the current one die.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', Commander Shepard can be one if you choose the "Spacer" background. It's the only background choice where Shepard isn't an orphan, as the background specific sidequest reveals that Shepard's mother is alive and still serving with the Alliance as the Executive Officer aboard an Alliance Dreadnought. By the second game, she's a Captain, having turned down a promotion to Admiral that she dismissed as a political ploy. In the third, she's been promoted to Rear Admiral and is serving directly under Admiral Steven Hackett. Shepard's Father is also mentioned as a military officer in this background, [[DisappearedDad but is never mentioned again beyond the opening line.]]

** This is actually standard for the Turians, as they're SpaceRomans with significant emphasis on merit and duty. Every citizen is either a member of the military or a reserve member that can be called back into service at any time. All able-bodied individuals are conscripted into the military at the age of 15.(Implied to be the turian age of Legal Adulthood) They then serve for 15 years until they reach 30, at which point they have the choice of either remaining in the military or leaving to do something else but becoming a reservist. [[TheLancer Garrus Vakarian]] is no exception, as his father was a military man and a distinguished member of Citadel Security.

*** A tie-in comic shows that Garrus learned to shoot well from his father as a boy (in a typical "shoot a can from far away" scenario). He actually calls his father while defending his base on Omega to say goodbye, only for the father to brush away the sentimentality and go straight to business ("How many targets?"). The conversation ends when Garrus spots the N7 armor and smiles.

* [[Characters/SupermanLoisLane Lois Lane]] from most continuities of ''{{Superman}}''.

* Norman Schwarzkopf. Although born in UsefulNotes/NewJersey, he spent much of his youth in UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, where his father, Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., was a senior military advisor to the Iranian government and the UsefulNotes/{{CIA}}.[[note]]One of the elder Schwarzkopf's last acts in Tehran was assisting the CIA and [[UsefulNotes/SecretIntelligenceService MI6]] in Operation Ajax--a.k.a. the coup that removed the democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and replaced him with the absolute rule of the Shah--which ended up biting the United States in the ass mightily when the Iranian Revolution toppled the Shah in 1979. This emboldened Saddam Hussein, so he started the UsefulNotes/IranIraqWar; his losses in that war led to his invasion of Kuwait, which led to [[UsefulNotes/GulfWar the very war that the younger Schwarzkopf had to fight]]. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job helping breaking it, Dad]]! Can you say "{{Irony}}"?[[/note]]

* Norman Schwarzkopf. Although born in UsefulNotes/NewJersey, he spent much of his youth in UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, where his father, Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., was a senior military advisor to the Iranian government and the UsefulNotes/{{CIA}}.[[not]]One of the elder Schwarzkopf's last acts in Tehran was assisting the CIA and [[UsefulNotes/SecretIntelligenceService MI6]] in Operation Ajax--a.k.a. the coup that removed the democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and replaced him with the absolute rule of the Shah--which ended up biting the United States in the ass mightily when the Iranian Revolution toppled the Shah in 1979. This emboldened Saddam Hussein, so he started the UsefulNotes/IranIraqWar; his losses in that war led to his invasion of Kuwait, which led to [[UsefulNotes/GulfWar the very war that the younger Schwarzkopf had to fight]]. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job helping breaking it, Dad]]! Can you say "{{Irony}}"?[[/note]]

* Norman Schwarzkopf. Although born in UsefulNotes/NewJersey, he spent much of his youth in UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, where his father, Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., was a senior military advisor to the Iranian government and the UsefulNotes/{{CIA}}.[[note:One of the elder Schwarzkopf's last acts in Tehran was assisting the CIA and [[UsefulNotes/SecretIntelligenceService MI6]] in Operation Ajax--a.k.a. the coup that removed the democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and replaced him with the absolute rule of the Shah--which ended up biting the United States in the ass mightily when the Iranian Revolution toppled the Shah in 1979. This emboldened Saddam Hussein, so he started the UsefulNotes/IranIraqWar; his losses in that war led to his invasion of Kuwait, which led to [[UsefulNotes/GulfWar the very war that the younger Schwarzkopf had to fight]]. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job helping breaking it, Dad]]! Can you say "{{Irony}}"?]]

* Norman Schwarzkopf. Although born in UsefulNotes/NewJersey, he spent much of his youth in UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, where his father, Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., was a senior military advisor to the Iranian government and the UsefulNotes/{{CIA}}.[[note]]One of the elder Schwarzkopf's last acts in Tehran was assisting the CIA and [[UsefulNotes/SecretIntelligenceService MI6]] in Operation Ajax--a.k.a. the coup that removed the democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and replaced him with the absolute rule of the Shah--which ended up biting the United States in the ass mightily when the Iranian Revolution toppled the Shah in 1979. This emboldened Saddam Hussein, so he started the UsefulNotes/IranIraqWar; his losses in that war led to his invasion of Kuwait, which led to [[UsefulNotes/GulfWar the very war that the younger Schwarzkopf had to fight]]. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job helping breaking it, Dad]]! Can you say "{{Irony}}"?[[/note]]

* This trope is known as "Aramco Brat" for those who grew up in overseas company towns run by petroleum companies (mainly the Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran).

* [[Characters/WonderWomanSteveTrevor Steve Trevor]] grew up with two parents in the military, even though [=WASPs=] like his mother wouldn't be recognized as veterans until long after the service was disbanded. Steve himself is a noted Air Force pilot and military intelligence officer.

* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': Manuel comes from a family known for its long military tradition and his many ancestors served in elite and respectable units... which is why his father did not take it well when he decided to become a lowly dragonboy.

* WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks: One of the two main leads, Ensign Beckett Mariner, is the daughter of Captain Carol Freeman, the commanding officer of the U.S.S Cerritos. Her father is also a Starfleet Admiral.

** Ashley Williams is also one and talks about her family extensively, both because it's a tradition stretching back several generations and because they were unfairly maligned after the First Contact War. This is because Ashley's Grandfather, who was a General commanding the Marine garrison defending the colony of Shanxi, was forced to surrender to the Turian invaders due to low supplies, numerous civilian and military casualties from turian orbital bombardment, and no immediate aid or reinforcements. Thus gaining him the reputation as the first and only human to ever surrender to Aliens. Made worse by the fact that the aftermath of the war created a very prevalent anti-alien culture in the Alliance.[[note]] Primarily because the Turians were the ones who started the conflict when they attacked and destroyed a group of civilian ships without warning. They then chased the survivors back to their colony world, destroyed the defending fleet in orbit, and proceeded to invade and occupy the planet. The turians attempt to justify their actions by claiming that they were merely doing their job upholding Galactic law. The Humans don't accept that as an excuse because humanity had just become space-faring and had never encountered any of the Citadel races. There was no way they could follow a law that they didn't even know existed, that was created by a group of aliens that they also didn't know existed. Not to mention the fact that the turians decided that rather than try to contact the new arrivals and explain that what they were doing was illegal, they instead opted to shoot them and invade their colony without provocation.

* ComicBook/LoisLane from most continuities of ''{{Superman}}''.

* ComicBook/SteveTrevor grew up with two parents in the military, even though [=WASPs=] like his mother wouldn't be recognized as veterans until long after the service was disbanded. Steve himself is a noted Air Force pilot and military intelligence officer.

** In turn, all three of his sons served in the armed forces. Quentin Roosevelt II died in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, and Theodore Roosevelt IV and Cornelius V.S. Roosevelt III both served in World War II.

* ''Film/RememberTheTitans'': Two of the Titan players, Louie Lastik and Ronnie "Sunshine" Bass, are from naval and army families, respectively.

** This is actually standard for the Turians as they're SpaceRomans with significant emphasis on merit and duty. Every citizen is either a member of the military or a reserve member that can be called back into service at any time. All able-bodied individuals are conscripted into the military at the age of 15.(Implied to be the turian age of Legal Adulthood) They then serve for 15 years of military service until they reach 30, at which point they have the choice of either remaining in the military or leaving to do something else but becoming a reservist. [[TheLancer Garrus Vakarian]] is no exception, as his father was a military man and a distinguished member of Citadel Security.

** [[TheLancer Garrus Vakarian]] is also one, his father being a military man and a distinguished member of Citadel Security. Of course, this is nothing exceptional for the Turians as they're SpaceRomans with significant emphasis on merit and duty. Nearly every capable individual is conscripted for 15 years of military service.

** Ashley Williams is also one and talks about her family extensively, both because it's a tradition stretching back several generations and because they were unfairly maligned after the First Contact War. This is because Ashley's Grandfather, who was a General commanding the Marine garrison defending the colony of Shanxi, was forced to surrender to the Turian invaders due to low supplies, numerous civilian and military casualties from turian orbital bombardment, and no immediate aid or reinforcements. Thus gaining him the reputation as the first and only human to ever surrender to Aliens. Made worse by the fact that the aftermath of the war created a very prevalent anti-alien culture in the Alliance.[[note]] Primarily because the Turians were the ones who started the conflict when they attacked and destroyed a group of civilian ships without warning before chasing the survivors back to their colony world, which they then invaded and occupied. The turians attempt to justify their actions by claiming that they were merely doing their job upholding Galactic law. The Humans don't accept that as an excuse because humanity had just become space-faring and had never encountered any of the other species. There was no way they could follow a law that they didn't even know existed, that was created by a group of aliens that they also didn't know existed. Not to mention the fact that the turians decided that rather than try to contact the new arrivals and explain that what they were doing was illegal, they instead opted to shoot them and invade their colony without provocation.

** Ashley Williams is also one and talks about her family extensively, both because it's a tradition stretching back several generations and because they were unfairly maligned after the First Contact War. This is because Ashley's Grandfather, who was a General commanding the Marine garrison defending the colony of Shanxi, was forced to surrender to the Turian invaders due to low supplies, numerous civilian and military casualties from turian orbital bombardment, and no immediate aid or reinforcements. Thus gaining him the reputation as the first and only human to ever surrender to Aliens. Made worse by the fact that the aftermath of the war created a very prevalent anti-alien culture in the Alliance.[[note]] Primarily because the Turians were the ones who started the conflict when they attacked and destroyed a group of civilian ships without warning before following the survivors and launching an attack on their colony world. The turians attempt to justify their actions by claiming that they were merely doing their job upholding Galactic law. The Humans don't accept that as an excuse because humanity had just become space-faring and had never encountered any of the other species. There was no way they could follow a law that they didn't even know existed, that was created by a group of aliens that they also didn't know existed. Not to mention the fact that the turians decided that rather than try to contact the new arrivals and explain that they were breaking the law, they instead opted to shoot them and invade their colony without provocation.