About This Blog ~ This blog is about a series of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) super-hero, sci-fi, fantasy adventure novels called Rainbow Arc of Fire. The main characters are imbued with extraordinary abilities. Their exploits are both varied and exciting, from a GLBT and a human perspective. You can follow Greg, Paul, Marina, Joan, William, and Joseph, as well as several others along the way, as they battle extraordinary foes or take on environmental threats all around the globe and even in outer space. You can access synopses of the ten books using the individual links on the upper, left-hand column.





The more recent posts are about events or issues that either are mentioned in one or more books in the series or at least influenced the writing of the series.










Thursday, August 2, 2012

Jim in front of the BOQ in Minot, April 1974

I first met Jim (Hunter?) in the VOQ when I arrived at Minot the first time in January.  He also now had a room in the BOQ and was helping me move some of my things from the car into my quarters, which were in the middle of the first floor on the back (east) side of that building.

There were two other types of bachelor quarters.  To the left of this picture out of frame were the two-man rooms that later became one-man rooms because they only contained one bath room.  It was decided in the next year that each officer should have his own bathroom.  The four-man quarters that are in the background of the previous picture were designated to be two-man rooms since each half, while it may have had two bedrooms, only had one bathroom between them.

I preferred not to have to share my space anyway, even though in the quarters above while I would have my own bathroom, each pair of rooms between the two entrance doors had to share a kitchen.

On each end of the building, you can see double windows and a then single window.  Those quarters had a separate living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom (the other rooms were a combination bedroom/living room).  Mostly captains were able to apply for and, based on seniority, get those separate rooms.  Eventually, a few months before I left Minot, I acquired the one that you can see this side of the entrance door.  Someone had put luminous stars on the ceiling which softly glowed at night.

Some officers chose to live off base in Minot because the BOQ, after the change of bathroom policy, was usually full, and they could get an off-base housing allowance.  One of my missile training classmates, Fred Tate, bought a trailer in the on-base trailer park.  After four years of making payments, the trailer was usually paid for and you could then sell it to someone else, making a tidy profit. 


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