In the beginning, I hid it fairly well, but it didn't take but six months of using meth before I caught my first felony for drug charges.
Hi, I'm Chuck, United States Marine Corps, military postal clerk. Served from 1988 to 1992. I lost my mother while I was in the Marine Corps to cancer, and so, I got to come home for a little for about 30 days and see her for about a week before she died. Didn't get to spend a whole lot of time mourning my mother's passing. The loss of her, it was, it was huge. It was a big deal.
Transition experience was, it went fairly smoothly, and then got married. Nine months after we got married, I found out that she was having an affair the entire time. We split up and that led to smoking pot and doing meth, and then it meth kind of just took over my life from there. Towards the end, the last three years I was using, I didn't have a place to live. I didn't have a job. The police finally caught up with me. I had a felony warrant for missing court on a felony drug charge, so they took me to jail and I sat in jail. Nobody would bond me out, my dad, no chance. But he came to see me every week while I was in jail and every time he would cry. What finally did it was I finally just got tired of watching my dad cry for me.
Homeless outreach coordinator that used to come to the jail named Sandra, and she would come and see me every couple weeks. She showed up one day, she said, what's your plan, Chuck? I said, I don't know. I guess I need treatment. And she said, I've been waiting for you to tell me that. Two weeks later, she comes back, she says, you're gonna be released in three days. They're gonna put an ankle bracelet on you, and they're gonna haul you to Grand Island Nebraska. Guys that I was in jail with were like, are you nervous? I said, what do I gotta be nervous about? I'm gonna go hang out with a bunch of other Veterans. We're all brothers. That was the beginning.
When I got back to Lincoln, I immediately enrolled in outpatient substance abuse treatment at the Lincoln VA, and it was like going to school every day. I can get up in the morning, catch a ride out there, spend all day learning more stuff, put more tools in my toolbox. I was still hanging out with fellow Veterans, and we all became like a little community out there. Met my wife. She was fostering one of her grandchildren from her previous marriage. So we started dating, we got engaged, and the state of Nebraska decided it was time for her to go up for adoption. I thought, you know, with my background, I didn't know if they were gonna allow me to adopt or not, but I was gonna give it a shot, and you know, it was unbelievable. All I had to do was be honest and this is where I'm at now, and this is what I'm doing to stay on the right path.
I just liked the peace and quiet, being away from the city. I met a doctor and his wife that used to do things to help Veterans in recovery, and they owned an urgent care clinic in Lincoln, and they said, we want to hire a new receptionist for our clinic and we want you to come and work for us. What you have, we can't train somebody to do, and that's, you're good with people. It landed me a job, and staying sober allowed me to keep that job. You don't have to live this life anymore. You don't have to live like this. You know, there is a easier, softer way. You know, life is good.
