Famous Overseas Alumni and Military BRATs

JOE PITTS (1939- )

REPRESENTATIVE (R-PA)

Representative Pitts is an Overseas Brat. Pitts was born in Kentucky in a family of strong Christian faith.. His father was an Army chaplain during World War II, serving in the South Pacific. After the war, the elder Pitts returned to the Philippines with his wife and children to serve as a missionary in a war-ravaged country. It was there, where he saw the after-affects of war, that Joe Pitts developed a heart for human rights and commitment to a strong defense. General Douglas MacArthur, a warrior who humbled an empire and taught it to be a democracy, was a childhood hero. (more…)

JOE REEDER

UNDER SECRETARY OF THE ARMY

Secretary Reeder was a military and an Overseas School Alumnus.

He attended Frankfurt American High School 1963-64.  He was in the FAHS Class of 1966.
Info from an 18 May 1995 letter from Secretary Reeder.

JOHN DENVER (1943-1997)

SINGER-SONGWRITER, ACTOR, HUMANITARIAN, ENVIRONMENTALIST

Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. on December 31, 1943 in Roswell, New Mexico, John Denver was an Air Force brat and an overseas school alumnus. His father, Lt Col John “Dutch” Deutschendorf, was a US Air Force pilot who set three international speed records in the B-58 Hustler in 1961.

Denver attended Yokota Elementary School at the Yokota housing annex of Johnson AB from kindergarten through 2nd grade. He graduated from Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth Texas in 1961 while his father was stationed at Carswell AFB. (more…)

JOHN N. ABRAMS

Gen. John N. Abrams is the son of Gen. Creighton Abrams, after whom the Abrams tank was named.  John attended school in Frankfurt, Germany, while his father was stationed in Frankfurt from 1959 until 1962.

JOHN S. MCCAIN, III (1936-2018)

U.S. SENATOR

John McCain was born in Panama . Both his father and grandfather were Navy admirals. His father was commander of U.S. Naval Forces in the Pacific when the senator was shot down in Vietnam and became a POW (1967-1973).

In his biography, McCain, a self-described military brat, said that “the longest place he ever lived was at the prison camp in Hanoi .”

The decorated war hero retired from the Navy in 1981. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982.  In 1986, he was elected to the Senate after Arizona ’s Barry Goldwater retired. In 2000, 2004, & 2008, McCain ran in the Republican primaries for President.

JOHN SCHWAB

ACTOR AND PRODUCER

John Schwab attended Kubasaki High School in Okinawa, Japan, and a DOD high school in Seoul, South Korea. John’s father served in the United States Marine Corps.

JULIA CAMPBELL

FILM & TELEVISION ACTRESS

Julia Campbell is an Army Brat and an Overseas Brat. She is the daughter of a US Army Officer as per PARADE MAGAZINE 3-5-95. She lived in Turkey during her junior high years.

Movies: “Opportunity Knocks” and “Livin’ Large”; Formerly on Soaps: “Ryan’s Hope”, “Santa Barbara” and other TV movies.

JULIANNE MOORE (1961-  )

ACTRESS

Julianne Moore (born Julie Anne Smith) is the daughter of a career Army Lawyer/Judge and social worker wife. Born in Fort Bragg , NC , Moore moved around to dozens of military communities. She attended and graduated from Frankfurt High School with the class of 1979.

Moore ’s first significant role came as Annabelle Sciorra’s best friend in the thriller, “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.” Much more impressive was her revealing role as a spirited artist in Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts.”

She has been nominated for four Oscars: Supporting Actress in “Boogie Nights,” Best Actress in “End of the Affair,” Best Actress in “Far From Heaven” and Best Supporting Actress in “The Hours.”

KATHIE LEE GIFFORD

TV PERSONALITY/SINGER

Kathie Lee is a Navy Junior. She is the daughter of a US Naval Officer.  She was born: Kathie Lee Epstein, in Paris, France.

She is best known as the co-host of  “Live with Regis and Kathie.

Source: U.S.A. Today/U.S. Weekender/Feb. 3, 1996

 

KATHLEEN TURNER (1954-    ) 

ACTRESS

Kathleen Turner’s father was an American diplomat.  She was a member of the Class of 1972 at the American School of London. Known primarily for her roles in movies, she has also appeared on television.

Turner has won two Golden Globe Awards and been nominated for an Oscar.

KATRINA LESKANISCH

LEAD SINGER KATRINA & THE WAVES

Grammy Nominee Katrina Leskanich attended Stuttgart AHS prior to graduating from Lakenheath High School where she graduated in 1978.


KELLYE CASH

MISS AMERICA 1987

Kelley’s father, Capt. Roy Cash, Jr., USN (Ret), is a nephew of singer/songwriter Johnny Cash.

KEN KASHIWAHARA

ABC TV NEWS REPORTER

Ken Kashiwahara is an Overseas School Alumnus. He attended Kubasaki High through the 8th Grade, then moved to Chevy Chase, MD, where he graduated from Bethesda Chevy Chase High School.


KENDALL BAKER

PRESIDENT OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY

Kendall Baker is an Overseas School Alumnus.  He attended Munich  American High School.

Baker is currently the President of Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio.

KENT CONRAD (1948- )

SENATOR (D-North Dakota)

Kent Conrad is an Overseas Brat. He attended Wheelus American High School at Wheelus AFB in Libya as a civilian student for several years as a member of the WAHS Class of 1966.

KEVIN MAWAE (1971- )

NFL Player & Coach

Kevin Mawae’s father, Sgt. 1st Class David Mawae, spent 23 years in the U.S. Army, serving 2 tours in Vietnam, 1 tour in Korea, and 2 tours in Germany. Kevin was born in Georgia and spent his childhood in Fort Riley, Kansas, and Hanau, Germany, before moving back to the U.S. to live near Leesville, Louisiana.

It was in Hanau that Kevin began playing football and was later an all-state football selection from Leesville High School where he attended. After college, Kevin went on to play for the NFL for sixteen seasons. He played for the Seattle Seahawks, Tennessee Titans, and spent most of his NFL years with the New York Jets. Kevin Mawae has served as an assistant offensive line coach for the Chicago Bears and now is a member of the Arizona State University coaching staff. In 2019, was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

KHALID ROBINSON (1998-)

Khalid Donnel Robinson (born February 11, 1998) is an American singer and songwriter. He signed with Right Hand Music Group and RCA Records. His debut single, “Location“, was released in July 2016 and peaked at number 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and was later certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Since then he has achieved several top 10 hits, a number one album and five Grammy He spent his childhood in various locations including Fort Campbell in KentuckyFort Drum in Watertown, New York, and six years in Heidelberg, Germany because of his mother Linda Wolfe’s, and his father’s, career in the military. During his junior year of high school, the family moved to El Paso, Texas and attended Americas High School.

KIMBERLY MCKAY

AUTHOR, SCREENWRITER, DIRECTOR, PODCAST HOST

Kimberly McKay graduated from Kubasaki High School in Okinawa, Japan. Her dad was in the United States Marine Corps.

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON

SINGER, SONGWRITER, ACTOR

Kris Kristofferson is an Air Force Brat.  His father was an USAF Major General.  This was recently confirmed by the Air Force History Support Office Library: Vicky Crone, Librarian, Air Force History Support Office.  Library vicky.crone@pentagon.af.mil

He  graduated in 1954 from San Mateo HS in San Mateo, California.  It is unknown if he attended any schools overseas.

He has often mentioned being a military brat and it is mentioned on the liner notes of one of his albums that  he was: “born into a military family in Brownsville, Texas, in 1936.”

The following quote from Kristofferson is from an interview published in the Sept. 1991 issue of the magazine “The Progressive”, pp.35-38: “….I grew up in a military background. One grandfather was a colonel in the Army, had his eye put out with a spear in the Philippine insurrection. The other one, before he came to this country, was in the Swedish army. My father was major-general in the Air Force, served in WWII and Korea. The military was for me and my brother, you know, just a fact of life.  When I graduated I got my commission in the Army but got deferred to go over to Oxford [as a Rhodes   scholar]. Afterwards, I was a helicopter pilot in Germany….In 1965 I volunteered  for Vietnam–and was turned down. They told me I was going to be assigned to  West Point to teach English. I decided to get out and go to Nashville instead….”

Kris Kristofferson, a Hall of Fame singer-songwriter, actor, and political activist, was born in 1936 in Brownsville, Tex., just over the border from Matamoros, Mexico. He spoke  Spanish before English, and much of his music still carries the sentiments of the bordertowns. The son of an Air Force officer, Kristofferson spent his youth moving around the  country wherever his father was assigned, finally finishing high school in San Mateo, California.

This life-in-motion style has never left him. He has clocked well over a million miles on his tour bus since 1970, when his  songs, “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through  The Night,” “For The Good Times,” “Loving Her Was  Easier,” and “Why Me,” to name a few, made him sought performer. Kristofferson has toured several months a year for the last 20 years, most recently as one of The Highwaymen with longtime friends Willie Nelson, Johnny  Cash, and Waylon Jennings.

Kristofferson was a creative literature major at  Pomona College and received a Rhodes Scholarship in 1958. At  Oxford University, he studied William Blake, but Never abandoned his lifelong admiration of the down-home poet of country music, Hank Williams.

After a stint as an Army pilot, he declined a teaching post at West Point and moved to Nashville to pursue a writing career and a foothold in the country music scene. He worked various odd jobs, including janitor at Columbia Studios, bartender, and helicopter pilot ferrying workers and executives back and forth to the Gulf oil rigs.

Stardom arrived in 1970, when he received the Songwriter of the Year Award and his now-classic song “Sunday Morning Coming Down” won Country Music Song of the Year. He has since been inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of  Fame and his songs have been recorded by hundreds of major artists.

Kristofferson simultaneously launched an acting career, starring in his first major motion picture in 1971. His film credits include “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “A Star is Born,” in which he co-starred with Barbara Streisand, and, most recently, the highly acclaimed independent 1996 film “Lone Star.” He received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of a declining rock superstar in “A Star is Born.”

KRISTIN ARMSTRONG

OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST, CYCLIST

Kristin Armstrong is a three-time Olympic gold medalist in cycling and former professional road bicycle racer. She graduated from Kubasaki High School in Okinawa, Japan. Her father was an officer in the United States Marine Corps.

LESLIE M. ALEXANDER

US AMBASSADOR TO ECUADOR

Leslie M. Alexander is an Overseas School Alumnus.  He is presently the US ambassador to Ecuador and previously was the US ambassador to Mauritius.

Ambassador Alexander is a 1966 graduate of Orleans American HS in France.

LESTER HOLT JR. (1959-)

Lester Don Holt Jr. (born March 8, 1959) is an American journalist and news anchor for the weekday edition of NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC. On June 18, 2015, Holt was made the permanent anchor of NBC Nightly News following the demotion of Brian Williams, making him the first African-American to solo anchor a weekday network nightly newscast. Mr. Holt, the son of an Air Force technician, likes to tell stories of his time as a D.J. on a country and western station in California, where he grew up, with a brief stint in Alaska.

LeVAR BURTON

TV ACTOR-PRODUCER-DIRECTOR

LeVar Burton is a military brat. He was born Levardis Robert Burton in Landstuhl, West Germany on February 16, 1957. He got his career started when he landed a role playing Kunta Kinte in the television mini-series “Roots” in 1977. Burton is most well known for his role as Geordi La Forge in the television series: “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” He also produces and directs the “Reading Rainbow” television series for the PBS.

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