diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/arguments/GATKArgumentCollection.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/arguments/GATKArgumentCollection.java
index 305519447..af18171a9 100755
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/arguments/GATKArgumentCollection.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/arguments/GATKArgumentCollection.java
@@ -119,6 +119,10 @@ public class GATKArgumentCollection {
     @Argument(fullName = "downsample_to_coverage", shortName = "dcov", doc = "Coverage [integer] to downsample to at any given locus; note that downsampled reads are randomly selected from all possible reads at a locus (use max_reads_at_locus to stop the engine from reading in all reads)", required = false)
     public Integer downsampleCoverage = null;
 
+    @Element(required = false)
+    @Argument(fullName="useOriginalQualities", shortName = "OQ", doc = "If set, use the original base quality scores from the OQ tag when present instead of the standard scores", required=false)
+    public Boolean useOriginalBaseQualities = false;
+
     @Element(required = false)
     @Argument(fullName = "validation_strictness", shortName = "S", doc = "How strict should we be with validation", required = false)
     public SAMFileReader.ValidationStringency strictnessLevel = SAMFileReader.ValidationStringency.SILENT;
diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/ClipReadsWalker.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/ClipReadsWalker.java
index 80221be41..46c37bfee 100755
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/ClipReadsWalker.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/ClipReadsWalker.java
@@ -43,9 +43,6 @@ public class ClipReadsWalker extends ReadWalker<ClipReadsWalker.ReadClipper, Cli
     @Argument(fullName="read", doc="", required=false)
     String onlyDoRead = null;
 
-    @Argument(fullName="useOriginalQualities", shortName = "OQ", doc="If set, use the original base quality scores", required=false)
-    boolean USE_ORIGINAL_QUALS = false;
-
     //@Argument(fullName = "keepCompletelyClipped", shortName = "KCC", doc = "Unfortunately, sometimes a read is completely clipped away but with SOFTCLIP_BASES this results in an invalid CIGAR string.  ", required = false)
     //boolean keepCompletelyClippedReads = false;
 
@@ -55,7 +52,6 @@ public class ClipReadsWalker extends ReadWalker<ClipReadsWalker.ReadClipper, Cli
     @Argument(fullName = "clipRepresentation", shortName = "CR", doc = "How should we actually clip the bases?", required = false)
     ClippingRepresentation clippingRepresentation = ClippingRepresentation.WRITE_NS;
 
-    private final static String ORIGINAL_QUAL_ATTRIBUTE_TAG = "OQ"; // The tag that holds the original quality scores
 
     /**
      * List of sequence that should be clipped from the reads
@@ -257,21 +253,7 @@ public class ClipReadsWalker extends ReadWalker<ClipReadsWalker.ReadClipper, Cli
     private void clipBadQualityScores(ReadClipper clipper) {
         SAMRecord read = clipper.getRead();
         int readLen = read.getReadBases().length;
-        byte[] quals = null;
-
-        if ( USE_ORIGINAL_QUALS ) {
-            final Object attr = read.getAttribute(ORIGINAL_QUAL_ATTRIBUTE_TAG);
-            if ( attr != null ) {
-                if ( attr instanceof String ) {
-                    quals = QualityUtils.fastqToPhred((String)attr);
-                } else {
-                    throw new StingException(String.format("Value encoded by %s in %s isn't a string!", ORIGINAL_QUAL_ATTRIBUTE_TAG, read.getReadName()));
-                }
-            }
-        }
-        // if we don't want original quals or couldn't find them, use the main quals
-        if ( quals == null )
-            quals = read.getBaseQualities();
+        byte[] quals = read.getBaseQualities();
 
 
         int clipSum = 0, lastMax = -1, clipPoint = -1; // -1 means no clip
@@ -399,20 +381,30 @@ public class ClipReadsWalker extends ReadWalker<ClipReadsWalker.ReadClipper, Cli
          */
         public void apply(ClippingRepresentation algorithm, SAMRecord clippedRead) {
             //clippedRead.setReferenceIndex(1);
+            byte[] quals = clippedRead.getBaseQualities();
+            byte[] bases = clippedRead.getReadBases();
+
             switch (algorithm) {
+                // important note:
+                //   it's not safe to call read.getReadBases()[i] = 'N' or read.getBaseQualities()[i] = 0
+                //   because you're not guaranteed to get a pointer to the actual array of bytes in the SAMRecord
                 case WRITE_NS:
                     for (int i = start; i <= stop; i++)
-                        clippedRead.getReadBases()[i] = 'N';
+                        bases[i] = 'N';
+                    clippedRead.setReadBases(bases);
                     break;
                 case WRITE_Q0S:
                     for (int i = start; i <= stop; i++)
-                        clippedRead.getBaseQualities()[i] = 0;
+                        quals[i] = 0;
+                    clippedRead.setBaseQualities(quals);
                     break;
                 case WRITE_NS_Q0S:
                     for (int i = start; i <= stop; i++) {
-                        clippedRead.getReadBases()[i] = 'N';
-                        clippedRead.getBaseQualities()[i] = 0;
+                        bases[i] = 'N';
+                        quals[i] = 0;
                     }
+                    clippedRead.setReadBases(bases);
+                    clippedRead.setBaseQualities(quals);
                     break;
                 case SOFTCLIP_BASES:
                     if ( ! clippedRead.getReadUnmappedFlag() ) {
diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalDataManager.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalDataManager.java
index 7c0f25ae6..b71824051 100644
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalDataManager.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalDataManager.java
@@ -201,18 +201,6 @@ public class RecalDataManager {
      */
     public static void parseSAMRecord( final SAMRecord read, final RecalibrationArgumentCollection RAC ) {
 
-        // Check if we need to use the original quality scores instead
-        if( RAC.USE_ORIGINAL_QUALS ) {
-            final Object attr = read.getAttribute(RecalDataManager.ORIGINAL_QUAL_ATTRIBUTE_TAG);
-            if( attr != null ) {
-                if( attr instanceof String ) {
-                    read.setBaseQualities( QualityUtils.fastqToPhred((String)attr) );
-                } else {
-                    throw new StingException(String.format("Value encoded by %s in %s isn't a string!", RecalDataManager.ORIGINAL_QUAL_ATTRIBUTE_TAG, read.getReadName()));
-                }
-            }
-        }
-
         SAMReadGroupRecord readGroup = read.getReadGroup();
 
         // If there are no read groups we have to default to something, and that something could be specified by the user using command line arguments
diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalibrationArgumentCollection.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalibrationArgumentCollection.java
index 198fb7ed0..16ba62bb9 100755
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalibrationArgumentCollection.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalibrationArgumentCollection.java
@@ -43,8 +43,6 @@ public class RecalibrationArgumentCollection {
     //////////////////////////////////
     @Argument(fullName="recal_file", shortName="recalFile", required=false, doc="Filename for the outputted covariates table recalibration file")
     public String RECAL_FILE = "output.recal_data.csv";
-    @Argument(fullName = "use_original_quals", shortName="OQ", doc="If provided, we will use the quals from the original qualities OQ attribute field instead of the quals in the regular QUALS field", required=false)
-    public boolean USE_ORIGINAL_QUALS = false;
     @Argument(fullName="default_read_group", shortName="dRG", required=false, doc="If a read has no read group then default to the provided String.")
     public String DEFAULT_READ_GROUP = null;
     @Argument(fullName="default_platform", shortName="dP", required=false, doc="If a read has no platform then default to the provided String. Valid options are illumina, 454, and solid.")
diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/sam/GATKSAMRecord.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/sam/GATKSAMRecord.java
index d404ff073..fe1feec41 100755
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/sam/GATKSAMRecord.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/sam/GATKSAMRecord.java
@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@ import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
 import net.sf.samtools.*;
+import net.sf.samtools.util.StringUtil;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.QualityUtils;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.StingException;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.GenomeAnalysisEngine;
 
 /**
  * @author ebanks
@@ -41,6 +45,8 @@ public class GATKSAMRecord extends SAMRecord {
     // These attributes exist in memory only, and are never written to disk.
     private Map<Object, Object> temporaryAttributes;
 
+    private final static String ORIGINAL_QUAL_ATTRIBUTE_TAG = "OQ"; // The tag that holds the original quality scores
+
     public GATKSAMRecord(SAMRecord record) {
         super(null); // it doesn't matter - this isn't used
         if ( record == null )
@@ -118,14 +124,34 @@ public class GATKSAMRecord extends SAMRecord {
     }
 
     public byte[] getBaseQualities() {
-        if ( mQualities == null )
-            mQualities = mRecord.getBaseQualities();
+        if ( mQualities == null ) {
+            if ( GenomeAnalysisEngine.instance.getArguments().useOriginalBaseQualities ) {
+                final Object attr = mRecord.getAttribute(ORIGINAL_QUAL_ATTRIBUTE_TAG);
+                if ( attr != null ) {
+                    if ( attr instanceof String ) {
+                        mQualities = QualityUtils.fastqToPhred((String)attr);
+                    } else {
+                        throw new StingException(String.format("Value encoded by %s in %s isn't a string!", ORIGINAL_QUAL_ATTRIBUTE_TAG, mRecord.getReadName()));
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+            // if we don't want original quals or couldn't find them, use the main quals
+            if ( mQualities == null )
+                mQualities = mRecord.getBaseQualities();
+
+            // sanity check that the lengths of the base and quality strings are equal
+            if ( mQualities.length  != getReadLength() )
+                throw new StingException(String.format("Error: the number of base qualities does not match the number of bases in %s (and the GATK does not currently support '*' for the quals)", mRecord.getReadName()));
+        }
         return mQualities;
     }
 
     public String getBaseQualityString() {
-        if ( mQualString == null )
-            mQualString = mRecord.getBaseQualityString();
+        if ( mQualString == null ) {
+            final byte[] quals = getBaseQualities();
+            if ( quals.length > 0 )
+                mQualString = StringUtil.bytesToString(quals);
+        }
         return mQualString;
     }
 
diff --git a/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/playground/gatk/walkers/ClipReadsWalkersIntegrationTest.java b/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/playground/gatk/walkers/ClipReadsWalkersIntegrationTest.java
index 219e3df6e..922f4a462 100755
--- a/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/playground/gatk/walkers/ClipReadsWalkersIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/playground/gatk/walkers/ClipReadsWalkersIntegrationTest.java
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ public class ClipReadsWalkersIntegrationTest extends WalkerTest {
                         " -OQ -QT 4" +
                         " -o %s -ob %s",
                 2,
-                Arrays.asList("55c01ccc2e84481b22d3632cdb06c8ba", "f9b1347fabbc33bb24f7c7fa8dfb798b"));
+                Arrays.asList("55c01ccc2e84481b22d3632cdb06c8ba", "ff7c6edba61307738b34786e14edbef9"));
         executeTest("clipOriginalQuals", spec);
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file