From long deployments, rigorous training and the perpetual prospect of relocation, military service demands flexibility and incredible fortitude. People rightfully honor veterans and presiding officers with parades and wreath-laying ceremonies but seldom recognize the shared resilience of their families—namely the nearly 1.6 million children currently connected to U.S. personnel, better known as military brats.

Virginia Chesnutt (‘26), the daughter of a Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force, shared how her brat upbringing fostered a love for and future in environmental conservation.

Chesnutt has been a military child since she was born in Ellsworth, South Dakota, while her father, Julian Chesnutt, worked as a senior master sergeant. He began serving in the U.S. Air Force in 2005. As an enlisted member of the Air Force, Sergeant Chesnutt currently works as a personnel specialist, running a branch that issues ID cards.

While most children would settle into stable friendships, sports or instrumental groups in their hometowns, Chesnutt only lived in South Dakota for four years before moving.

South Dakota led to Tampa, Florida, and Tampa led to Little Rock, Arkansas, where Chesnutt lived for seven years. While she views Arkansas as a place for primarily white Baptists, she was able to indulge in welcoming communities even with the lack of diversity there. Chesnutt notably met her best friend,a fellow military brat, in third grade.

“I have my sister,” Chesnutt said. “I don’t have a biological sister. We’ve been friends for eight years, but she’s the closest thing I have to one.”

She added, “It’s been very difficult because, especially when I was younger. I didn’t have a phone, so I couldn’t really keep in touch with people. But luckily for her, she was willing to keep up a long distance friendship with me [and] I love her very much.”

After spending most of her elementary and middle school years in Arkansas, her family then moved to Edwards, California, for only one year. Currently, she resides near Joint Base Mcguire-Dix where her dad works. Chesnutt describes Cherry Hill as the most diverse place she has ever lived.

“[Moving] has exposed me to all sorts of different experiences. I have a better understanding of culture because I’ve traveled a lot. It’s easier for me to compare different states and what people believe because I’ve lived in different places,” she said.

However, moving cross-country also comes with shifting standards. Chesnutt struggled to adjust to Cherry Hill’s comparatively rigorous school system when she first came in 2022. During her time in Arkansas, she attended a school with a rating of ten while her school in California was rated a seven. Based on her grades and GPA in California, Chesnutt was advised to take all honors and Advanced Placement (AP) courses, but due to the disparities in education levels and degrees of prior preparation from middle school, it was difficult for her to adjust to East’s different curriculum.

“My school in California was rated a seven, but it was more like a five… We joke that I was sent to a McDonald’s preparatory school,” Chestnutt said. “Education was definitely not as important as it is here.”

On a wider scale, though, military life exposed Chesnutt to different opportunities and benefits; it also brought along a plethora of challenges. Beyond the stresses of moving and academics, living on base, surrounded by personnel and high-ranking officers, comes with expectations. As the child of an enlisted officer, Chesnutt described a sense of anxiety when it came to how she must behave and present herself in front of officers. Large events such as military school graduation ceremonies and Air Force balls are especially nerve-wracking because misbehavior can reflect poorly on her father in the workplace. Additionally, long deployments in the midst of international conflicts are emotionally straining; Chesnutt’s father was sent to Qatar from October of 2023 to April of 2024, sparking constant anxiety and a plug to familial contact.

“[Deployment means] he’s gone for about six months of my life,” Chesnutt said. “It’s very difficult, and sometimes scary because he’s been sent to places where there is still fighting going on… Sometimes the base will have to be shut down because there’s fighting nearby, and all of that’s not necessarily because of our politics, but most of the time because of things outside our control.”

Still, constant relocation made her immediate family more close-knit, and time away from her father only strengthened their bond and made time together feel more special. Chesnutt also has a strong relationship with her younger brother.

“The people you move with are basically your world,” Chesnutt said. “There’s a lot of fear of the place that I’ll go to be- cause there’s a bunch of unknowns… but [my family] will always be a constant; they’re the knowns.”

Despite the struggles of readjustment, as a self-proclaimed adventure lover, Chesnutt ultimately enjoys moving because the nomadic lifestyle exposes her to new cultures and experiences. Most significantly, though moving has affected Chesnutt’s ability to maintain extracurricular involvement in local programs, one thing has held constant since 2019, being a Boy Scout.

“Scouting has been a staple everywhere we go, [so] I have miniature families set up all over the place because of all the troops I’ve joined,” said Chesnutt.

She originally joined a Girl Scouts troop in Florida at the age of 6 but began gravitating toward the activities her brother participated in as a Boy Scout. Although it’s been hard to gain acceptance from adults, especially the male adults, her fellow scout members have now taken Chesnutt in, welcoming her into their community.

“The boys are like family to me. They’re like my brothers. And they respond to me as if I’m their sister,” said Chesnutt.

Chesnutt also founded a new goal–namely, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from California to Canada in six months–after falling in love with the outdoors. Over the summer, she spent 12 days in New Mexico on a backpacking trip that started in Philmont Scout Ranch, just outside the city of Cimarron.

“That experience was enlightening,” Chesnutt said. “It showed me that I am capable of doing long backpacking stretches. It’s through Scouts that I’ve had experiences that have inspired me to seek new goals.”

Exposing her to everything from deep valleys to surreal mountaintops, in tandem with the presence of scout troops all over the country, backpacking has fostered a passion for forestry. Frequent moving has allowed Chesnutt to revel in different geographic beauties and develop a deep appreciation for nature.

Her ultimate dream now is to join the National Park System after high school. And though the difficulties brought onto her family as a military child steered her away from joining the forces herself, it allowed her to find her true calling: studying forestry and becoming a National Park Ranger.

Balancing holding onto memories and making room for new experiences, Chesnutt has taken a piece of home–wherever that may be–with her throughout the years. Having soaked in the beauty of the New Mexican backcountry, learned the ins and outs of military etiquette and responsibility and developed lifelong, meaningful relationships with “family” across the country, she plans on harnessing the maturity, flexibility and passions she’s developed as a brat to make her dreams come true.