Marine Wife Lesson #2: Enter the BOQ at Your Own Risk!

BOQ, abbreviation for: Bachelor Officer's Quarters

At TBS (The Basic School) the Officer's are required to live on base if they are not married. Those that are married are allowed to live off-base. However, each "brown-bagger," as the married guys are called for bringing brown-bag lunches to work, have a bed in the BOQ for those nights when they are required to stay on base. I can't say I have really ever been curious about the BOQ. By the way they have been described to me, they sounded pretty much like overcrowded dorm rooms, where they try to squeeze 3 beds, 3 desks, and 3 dressers like puzzle pieces into creative configurations in an impossibly small room .

Well come to find out they are gradually tearing down these buildings and re-building new quarters, and for good reason. These rooms are more like prison cells than dorm rooms, complete with their white painted cinder-block walls. Yes, the furniture is very dorm room-esque...but that's where the comparisons end. I am pretty sure prison cells have a/c and warm water, don't they? And despite having to relentlessly scrub their rooms from top to bottom, there is a stench that is indescribable. That stench can probably be attributed to 3 grown men with gear, boots and clothing that is worn for days on end in the woods, in all weather conditions, and all of it stored together in these teeny tiny spaces. I could hardly breathe when I (reluctantly) had the pleasure of seeing Jordan's room. Upon experiencing the BOQ firsthand, I could not get over the fact that 2 of the 3 guys assigned to this room actually lived here, day in and day out. Now I understood why these guys would pay money for hotel rooms just to get out of here on the weekends. All of the sudden I felt like we needed to adopt these lost boys. Its like that feeling you get when you go to an animal shelter and you feel guilty for not being able to save all the puppies and give them a home. Yes, they will have to live in worse conditions during the careers in the military, but it just didn't seem fair that they were stuck there while Jordan is able to come home and have a home cooked meal and a warm shower every night. These poor guys!

In addition to experiencing a tremendous amount of empathy for these guys and their living conditions, entering the BOQ as a wife, also means you have to go through the "trying on your husband's gear" ritual. I have heard about the amount of weight they have to carry about on a daily basis, but Jordan wanted me to experience it first hand.

Wow! All that gear was SO heavy, and the pack that I was wearing on my back wasn't even full! I had to keep myself from falling over by bracing myself on the bunk bed behind me so I could pose for Jordan's picture. Apparently the guys get a great kick out of seeing others experience a portion of the pain they go through on a daily basis. And although I think I rocked the uniform, especially with my red and orange printed dress to compliment the green camo, I think it looks much better on Jordan, don't ya think....