DUI puts ex-cop on other side of law

  • Published
  • By Chris Zdrakas
  • Warner Robins Air Logistics Center Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFPN) --  Handcuffed and scared, a 23-year-old senior airman here rode in the back seat of a local Warner Robins Police Department squad car, playing over in his mind the night that abruptly changed his life.

It was Veterans' Day 2003 when Airman X, as he will be called at his request, drank, drove and crashed his truck into a stopped car at a red light.

That night police charged Airman X with driving under the influence, the start of what he called a continuing, biting nightmare that haunts him every day. He stepped forward to tell his story, hoping to help someone. He was in a security forces squadron before his assignment here.

"If I reach one person, retelling [the story of] that night will have been worth the effort," he said.

Home alone watching television Nov. 11, he drank three 6-ounce drinks laced with vodka before getting in his nearly new truck and taking off for a friend's home about 10 minutes away. He said he had eaten a steak and cheese sandwich earlier that evening.

"I have never been a heavy drinker," he said. "I thought I was OK."

The circumstances of the accident are not clear in his mind, but he recalls being on a local road for about five minutes when he ran into the back of a sedan at a red light. His airbag deployed, striking him with a force he said left him disoriented.

No one in either vehicle was seriously injured. Both truck and car were heavily damaged.

Airman X and the other driver pulled off the road into an adjoining parking lot, and he went searching for a pay phone. Meanwhile, the friend he had been planning to visit, concerned he had not arrived, went looking for him and came upon the accident scene.

She called the police and responding officers apparently smelled the alcohol, which they said was later confirmed in sobriety tests at the police station. Police charged him with a DUI.

Airman X then called his first sergeant to drive him home. By then, it was about 3 a.m.

"I was once again in the back seat of a car seeing my whole life flash in front of me," he said. "I was thinking 'my life is over.' I was mad and very disappointed (with) myself."

Airman X said his first sergeant told him to meet with the commander at 7 a.m.

"I was still hazy. He could have told me anything, and I would have agreed to it. I took a shower, but I slept very little," he said.

Before the events of the night unfolded, Airman X had his alarm set so he would get to work his usual time, 9 a.m. At 7 a.m., his phone started ringing, but having finally nodded off, he did not answer. An hour later, three of his supervisors were knocking on his door.

"They were mad," he said. "I began to put on my camouflage [uniform], but they said they wanted me in blues because I was going to see the commander."

Airman X said he stood at attention for five or 10 minutes as the commander gave him what he described as a "good scolding." Then she sent him back to work, telling him he would not be getting a day off.

"It seemed like the longest day of my life," he said. "I was tired, I had a headache, and I was filled with remorse."

Later that day, Airman X made a call he said he dreaded -- to his parents. He said his parents had been "pretty strict" while he was growing up, insisting on good grades.

He earned As and Bs in school, enlisting in the Air Force right after graduating high school. He said because his family did not have the money to send him to college, he chose the Air Force to better himself and one day, be able to afford college on his own.

He had been in the Air Force more than five years and was a senior airman when he was charged with the DUI. Because of the charge, he was demoted to airman first class, received a letter of reprimand, an unfavorable information file and an Article 15 nonjudicial punishment for tardiness (for the day after his arrest).

He also lost his base driving privileges for one year, was disqualified from testing for staff sergeant and directed to attend Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment on base.

But that was not the end of his nightmare.

Since the DUI, in Warner Robins Municipal Court, a judge fined him $1,400. He said retaining a lawyer cost him another $500. His parents helped him pay the initial costs, and he is paying his debt off in $160 monthly installments.

The added expense and a $300 monthly decrease in Air Force pay meant he found himself doing without some things he had grown accustomed -- cable TV, telephone and dinners out.

"Now it's just survival," he said.

He relies on co-workers and others to drive him to and from work as well as to medical and other necessary appointments.

"I used to see people like that and think 'man, this has to (be rough),'" he said. "Now I am one of those people -- I have to wake up and look at myself in the mirror. I did the crime, and I deserve the punishment.

“Living with it isn't easy,” he said. “The only good thing is that I got the dumb stuff out of the way. I'll know better in the future."

He said his advice to others is this: Be responsible; don't drink alone. Plan ahead, and if you are going to drink, have a designated driver. (Courtesy of Air Force Materiel Command News Service)