(Military.com illustration/Photos courtesy of Patty Bear)
17 May 2021 Coffee or Die Magazine | By Natalie Gross
Growing up in the Reformed Mennonite Church, Patty Bear didn’t know anything about the military only that her people were pacifists. Higher education and many secular professions were taboo, especially for women. She assumed she’d be wearing long dresses and bonnets for the rest of her life, like her mother and countless generations of female ancestors before her.
Yet after years of watching her mother endure alleged abuse from her father, whose ongoing feud with Mennonite leaders has made newspaper headlines for decades, Bear realized she wanted more than the future she had always accepted. And in 11th grade, she met an Air Force Academy cadet who would be her way out.
How the Military Became Patty Bear s Path Out of Trauma and the Mennonite Church military.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from military.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.