This article traces the emergence of the term 'turbulence' to describe the educational disruption experienced by military children after 1945. It asks why the term came to dominate professional discussion of military education so much from the late 1960s onwards and the wider tensions it exposed in post-war Britain: between welfare and warfare; 'tradition' and progressiveness; individuals and communities; families and institutions. Moreover, this article argues that childhood mobility in the late twentieth century was at times refracted through assumptions about class and rank, as well as issues such as immigration and intelligence. Finally, this article uses oral history interviews to reflect on how turbulence itself became part of the life stories of many former service children, offering 'composure', explanation and even a community through which to understand their sometimes-disrupted education and childhoods.