Life on Fort Belvoir: an Oasis from the Craziness of Northern Virginia

Having grown up an Air Force brat in Virginia, I've always known this state has its fair share of military installations. When I married my husband, a lieutenant colonel in the Army, I wasn't too surprised to find out that we were going to be living in Virginia... Northern Virginia (NoVA) to be exact.

My parents moved to Fairfax, Virginia back in the late 1970s, when my dad retired from the Air Force. Two years later they decided to move again, mainly because of the traffic and crowding in the DC area. I remember not being too thrilled about moving out of NoVA, but back in the 70s, I didn't know how to drive. The area has, of course, grown exponentially since my parents lived here and housing is very expensive. Even a small condominium can cost over a quarter of a million dollars. And yet, my husband and I had had our fill of living in apartments. Back in 2003, I persuaded my husband to put our names on the housing list at Fort Belvoir. We were told the waiting list was about two years long. Our wait turned out to be less than two months.

Each servicemember gets a monthly housing allowance (BAH) that can be used to pay for housing on the economy or it can be forfeited for housing on a military installation. Housing on Fort Belvoir or any other miltary installation is only open to eligible members of the military and their families. Over the years, government housing has gotten a bad reputation for being ugly and in poor repair. When we first arrived at Fort Belvoir, we did notice that a lot of the houses looked dilapidated. Nevertheless, we figured almost anything would be better than the apartment we had been living in in Fredericksburg, VA. Our decision to move on post turned out to be a good one.

Clark-Pinnacle