Laura Thurston Gutman is a retired pediatrician now living in Durham North Carolina. She lived her childhood as an Army Brat from birth and saw the onset of World War II. Her family remained at the core of the US Army through the Vietnam era and was often stationed in postings that included events of deep historical consequence.She is happily married, also to a physician, and has two daughters with whom she is on close terms. Both daughters emerged into adulthood having escaped the calamities that now so common waylay the young. She looks back at her early life as an Army Brat with intense gratitude.