Book Review: When Your Daddy's A Soldier by Gretchen Brandenburg McLellan

September 2025

When a military member signs up swearing in an oath, he or she is committing to support the branch of service that they are in and their country. Some military members sign up for four years while others might sign up for six years. This is not a nine to five job. Military members are subject to deployments, temporary duties, base exercises, and other tasks at a moment’s notice. It has been said that only one percent of the U.S. population are in the military.

I know when I was in, I did not go on long extended temporary duties, but I did spend time overseas on a short tour to South Korea and a long tour to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. My stateside assignments were Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama and Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas. Mostly, my temporary duties lasted for no more than two weeks at a time.

During my Air Force Reserve time, I spent a lot of time on active duty, reserve time once a month, and monthly weekend drills. I enjoyed my time being able to see the world through the Air Force and Air Force Reserve time.

In this book, When Your Daddy’s A Soldier, children talk about the experiences of their dad being gone multiple times for a long period of time. They are trying to adjust to the change of not having dad at home all the time.  Being a military dependent can be a tough job since understanding the role of their dad being in the military can often feel strange. In other books about the military, moms are often in the military. It may not be uncommon to have both parents in the military.

It is never easy when your dad goes away for a long time. The great part of returning from the deployments is the fact that dad gets to hug his family when he returns.

When I was in the military, we did not have all the technology we have today where you can see your dad on video. There are so many other ways to write to your dad when he is gone, like mail and email. Many days seem better for the soldier when he receives mail from his family or a video call.

This is the life of a military member who sacrifices everything for his country, branch of service, and family. Honor those military members who need remembering while they are deployed. Send care packages to the deployed military members.

When they get out of service or retire, honor them as Veterans. There are so many Veterans in the United States who are in your local area. Reach out to them and their families.

I highly recommend this book to be read to all children. I highly encourage the reader to check out some more books about military dependents like my books and other authors listed on Amazon.