How Charlie Found Solace In Sobriety

AMEN –

Dec. 14, 2023 – He looked at the joint in his ashtray and thought about taking a few hits to calm down. As he went to light the joint, all he could see were the faces of his two young daughters.

“I hate myself,” Charlie said he recalled thinking. “You sob. You keep doing what you’re doing and you’re committing suicide on the installment plan. Just get it over with.”

He had a shotgun in the back of his truck. And Charlie remembered thinking: ”just drive out in the middle of the woods somewhere and pull the trigger.”

Let’s flash back to 18 years earlier. Back then, Charlie served in the U.S.Navy, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Randolph during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

“Our job was to escort them (Soviet ships) and then board those ships to verify the missiles. Of course, they wouldn’t allow us to board,” Charlie said. “When we force boarded them, we found 2 x 4’s with tarps over them stretched to look like missiles. Fakes.”

The Cuban Missile Crisis has been characterized as a pivotal moment in U.S. history. Between October 16 and October 28, 1962, President John F. Kennedy engaged Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev in a tense standoff over the placement of ballistic nuclear missiles in Cuba within range of the United States.