Consequences of a DUI from an airman who knows Published Aug. 20, 2002 By Airman 1st Class Johnny Thompson 31st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy (AFPN) -- On April 27, I got a DUI, or driving under the influence, charge.I started my evening by drinking with some people in the dorms for a going away party. Later, I went to a local club off base for an hour or so and left about 2:30 a.m. It was raining hard and I was halfway home when I ran through a water puddle and my car veered to the right. I overcorrected to the left and my car flipped over three times and ended up on the other side of the road in a field upside down.All I could think about was my wife and kids. I was trapped inside my car, the power was off, and for a minute I thought my windows were rolled up. I realized the back window on the passenger side was down and I was able to crawl out.Thanks to God I didn't have a scratch on me. I remember talking to someone who has a friend, who had an accident similar to mine, but he wasn't so lucky. Since I was under the influence of alcohol my reflexes were slow, and I just went with the flow. My blood alcohol content was .20, which was more than two times the legal limit.After the accident I started really thinking. Not just about my career, but how my actions affected my family and could have affected the families of others. I couldn't stop asking myself, "Why was I so irresponsible? What if I had died? What if I had hit someone else and what if they had kids in the car? How would my wife explain to my kids what happened and how selfish their father was?"Right now I'm just trying to get my life back together and be the father, husband and the kind of airman that I should be.I will say that drinking and driving is very serious. Before you drink and drive, try to think, I mean really think, about yourself, your family, friends and about others you could have endangered by your actions. Think about the affect it would have on them. I was lucky. I am still alive and able to be with my family, and tell my story; someone else might not be so lucky.That one night changed my life. My mistake hurt my career and my family. I received an Article 15 and my commander punished me by taking a stripe. I was a senior airman with six years in the military. I now am an airman first class. I also was given 30 days extra duty and a reprimand.It will take me 18 months to put senior airman back on and the loss in pay of $283.80 a month over the next 18 months will be approximately $5,108.40. In addition, I lost my driving privileges for a year. I am lucky, however, because I still have my life, my wife has a husband, and my children still have their father.It will be a long hard process to keep my career and family in a positive shape, but I will do everything I can to get back on my feet. It took an incident like this for me to really think about my life, my family, and the lives of others on the road.As a member of the Air Force I hear the briefings, I see the Armed Forces Network spots, I read the articles about not drinking and driving, but it took an experience like this to realize that it is simply not worth the risk of driving a vehicle or even getting into a vehicle when the driver has had just one drink.In my situation, I simply quit drinking. Be responsible, use common sense, and listen and learn from my experience. Hopefully, my story can save your career, and, most important of all, save someone else's life and yours. (Courtesy of U.S. Air Forces in Europe News Service)