In this op-ed, Jeffrey Chin, a School of Social Work lecturer, Blue Star Families of New England executive director, and a US Navy Reservelieutenant commander, takes football quarterback Tom Brady to task for comparing the grind of life in the NFL to military deployment, which points to a larger issue, he says “Tom Brady’s words reflect a growing disconnect between the general public and its understanding of what it means to live a military life, both as a service member and perhaps more poignantly, as a member of a military family.”
By LISA SMITH MOLINARI | Special to Stars and Stripes | Published: April 23, 2021 From the time I toddled around in droopy diapers, to the day I drove off to college in my Volkswagen Beetle, I lived in one small Pennsylvania town. The kids who picked their noses next to me in Mrs. Rowley s kindergarten class were the same ones who walked across the stage with me at our high school graduation. I had one hometown, one high school, one brick house, one yellow bedroom, and one best friend who I gabbed with each night on one rotary phone while draped across one mock brass twin bed.