I just saw the Unmarried America feature on Anderson Cooper 360, so I decided to check out your website.  I read the article on single service members, and I couldn’t agree with it more.  I have been a Marine for 6 ½ years. 

I am a sergeant, and because I am not married, I live in the barracks.  Every few years there are measures taken to improve the barracks, such as removing the lead-based paint and asbestos, or putting in new furniture.  But it comes across as just enough to shut us up.  It’s like we are supposed to be grateful that someone cares enough to make the barracks safe for human occupation.  The way I see it, my 6 ½ years of military service don’t matter.  It’s like I don’t make a sacrifice because I’m not trying to raise a family at the same time. 

I am currently deployed with the 22^nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, on board the USS Nassau.  As it was stated in the article, the living conditions are cramped.  In a space the size of my barracks room at Cherry Point, there are 32 guys living in the berthing, although there are about 150 of us in the whole berthing.  We share 8 toilets, 5 urinals, and 5 showers the size of refrigerators.  Of course, for the Marines, all enlisted personnel share these living conditions, married or not.  We’re only on this ship for a short time. 

What annoys me is that the married Marines and Sailors are getting FSA (family separation allowance), about $250 a month.  I’ve been separated from my family for the last 6 ½ years and I haven’t seen an extra dime.  I’ve always thought that single service members should get some kind of compensation for the conditions we endure for not being married.  The mess hall food is like school cafeteria food, only lower quality.  The beef comes in containers marked ‘for military or prison use only.’  I’ve gotten food poisoning more than once from spoiled fruit.  I have no control over the heat or air conditioning in my barracks room, away from the low, medium, or high setting.  The air conditioning unit and heaters are turned on at a set time each year, depending on the season. 

What I hate the most is that I am not supposed to work on my truck in the parking lot of the barracks.  I’m supposed to go to the Auto Hobby Shop and pay them $2 to let me use a spot there.  But a married person can have a garage full of tools and equipment to do whatever he wants.  It doesn’t seem fair to me that with as long as I’ve been in the military, a private who just came out of boot camp can have a house and a dog and a yard of his own because he’s married. 

What this causes is known as a contract marriage.  Two service members of opposite sex get married just to get the benefits such as housing allowance, even though they care nothing about each other.  The thought has crossed my mind more than once.  I’ve had more than one offer from someone else to do it.  But marriage is a sacred thing to me.  My parents were never married.  They had my older sister and I, then went their separate ways, got married to other people, had more kids, then got divorced.  My mom is married again, and my dad is a 50-year-old bachelor.  I want to get it right when I finally do get married.  So it won’t be while I’m on active duty. 

I think single service members should get a convenience bonus.  When we deploy, we don’t have to make sure our families are taken care of, because we don’t have families.  We don’t have to worry about house leases, because we live in the barracks.  We just pack our gear and get on the plane (or boat, in my case).  If it were not for the family readiness programs and child care centers on base, the government could save a lot of money.  Money that could in turn go toward making the barracks a better place to live. 

I understand that barracks life has improved a lot even since Desert Storm.  I’ve seen improvements in the time I’ve served.  The problem is, barracks life is still regulated.  Married Marines don’t have to worry about being picked for morning cleanup duties or cleaning the common areas.  Married people don’t have to send their guests away when taps is played at night. 

I’m not saying that every married service member is wrong for being married.  But I’m saying that if they want to burden themselves with a family while they’re in a job that could send them around the globe at a moment’s notice, let them do it on their own.  Let them see for themselves that it’s not a good idea. 

If a kid joins the military and feels like he has to start a family to feel grown up, let him do it.  I don’t feel that need.  I’m almost 25 years old.  Nobody can tell me I’m not grown up.  I’ve been deployed to the other side of the world five times.  In my opinion, that makes me a lot more grown up than an 18-year-old kid who walks down the aisle in his dress blues and says, “I do” to his high school sweetheart.  But yet he makes an extra $1000.00 a month for dragging that poor girl into this lifestyle.  Having more sense than that costs me over $1000.00 every month. 

And I realize that most of it would go right back out towards living expenses, but that’s the point, isn’t it?  It’s a better quality of life.  That is why I will be leaving the Marine Corps right where I found it after 8 years.  I am hoping to go to work for a private contractor in Iraq.  It’s not quite a better quality of life, but it is a lot better pay for what I do. 

Anyway, I’m glad to know that I’m not alone in seeing that single service members are being stepped on by the policies for married service members.   Thank you for your time and for your support.

Sgt Tim