FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. — Born into a world of constant change, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Desiree Ware found herself moving from the icy landscapes of Minot, North Dakota, to the sun-soaked shores of Okinawa, Japan, navigating through multiple schools, friendships, and cultures that would later have a transformative impact on her personal and professional life.

Children raised in a military environment can develop a strong sense of resilience and adaptability from their upbringing.

Ware was born in Minot, North Dakota. Her mother was stationed at an Air Force base, approximately 15 miles north of the city, working as an administrator, she said. When she was about three years old, her mother got her second duty assignment, so they moved to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where they would end up living until she was seven years old.

Her family would then again be on the move; this time her mother got stationed in Florida at Eglin Air Force Base.

Ware’s fondest memories were made in Florida, she said. She was at an age where her brain had started to develop a little bit more compared to Vandenberg, and her memories started to really stick out.

“Florida was probably my favorite place, just because we were in a town right by the water,” she said. “At that time, my mom’s ex-husband had a boat, so we’d go out on the boat frequently and fish all the time.”

Ware was a competitive gymnast, and her team would often travel around the state for competitions, she said. She had the best birthdays in Florida; she had a gymnastics party one year and a roller rink party another year.

However, it was at Eglin that Ware’s mother got divorced, and right after that, she was deployed to Korea, she said. Because of these circumstances, Ware had to move to Texas to live with her grandparents, who were retired military instructors.

“My grandparents were both drill sergeants, so I had a very strict upbringing,” she said. “I stayed with them for about two years while my mom did a short tour in Korea and then six months in Afghanistan.”

Ware’s grandfather spent most of his military career as a training instructor, she said. He would do his time as an instructor, go back to his career field, and then come back to being an instructor. Currently, her grandfather teaches the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, so he’s still wearing the uniform to this day, 20 years after he retired.

Ware spent the next two years living a more rigid home life, she said. She had details almost every day, starting with kitchen duty, where she would make breakfast, clean the kitchen, and throw away the trash in the morning. She did hospital corners when making her bed, ironed her clothes after laundry, and had inspections every Saturday.

“Those two years felt longer,” she said. “By the time my mom came back, I was so ready to be a normal kid again.”

After Texas, Ware and her mother moved to Okinawa, Japan, she said. She did seventh to 11th grade in Okinawa, but in between the semesters, she would go back and forth to Texas to be with her grandparents, because that’s how her mother liked it.

“My mom got married when we were in Okinawa, which is cool,” Ware said. “But they also ended up deploying to Afghanistan for six months, both her new husband and herself.”

When her mother and stepfather finally came back, they all moved to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where she completed her senior year of high school, she said.

Ware’s biggest challenge during this period was changing schools and encountering different curriculums when they moved back to the United States, she said.

“I felt like I was always trying to catch up when I came back stateside for school,” Ware said. “I was behind on certain credits that were mandatory in North Carolina but weren’t mandatory or available overseas.”

Ware also found it difficult to maintain friendships during this time due to constantly moving every two to three years, she said. As a child, she thought it was a normal thing, and everyone’s life was similar to hers, but now that she’s older, she knows it wasn’t a healthy thing to do.

“The friendships I’ve made in the military since I enlisted are the ones I really cherish,” she said. “I’m learning to be a better communicator because of my experiences as a child.”

Ware enlisted in the U.S. Air Force out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in March 2016, after completing her bachelor’s degree in public relations from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, she said. She would then proceed to basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, where she soon realized that she was already familiar with the military way of doing things, and the rest would be easy.

“After I got to basic training, I realized everything was how I’d been taught,” Ware said. “It wasn’t hard at all. It was just making it through at that point.”

When it comes to her approach to daily life, Ware thinks the military upbringing made her more of a structured and organized person, she said. She learned how to easily adapt to new environments, be flexible, and accept change whenever it’s expected.

“It taught me not to fear change, even though sometimes it’s hard,” Ware said. “I wouldn’t change my experiences for anything, since it’s always been a normal thing for me.”

Ware has now been in the U.S. Air Force for about eight years, and she can look back at her upbringing from a different perspective, she said. She can now see things from her parents’ point of view, and she understands that they wanted to be there, but sometimes they just couldn’t.

“It wasn’t a bad experience being a military brat,” Ware said. “Now that I’m in the military, I see all the sacrifices that both my mom and stepdad had to make for me to be here.”