Garber
Lynne Thomas
Terry and Susan Quinn
Mark and Teri Hersee
Arvin and Verla Smith
Steve and Sandy Bringhurst
Along with many others who have chosen
to remain anonymous in
America, Sweden and Australia.
FOREWORD
This story is one of miracles and a transformed life. I can remember sitting down with Carl as he told me his life story and it was like watching a movie. He has had so many adventures packed into his one life. As I read the pages of this book, I saw in my mind’s eye the ship he was on, his encounters with the law and the miraculous transformation of his life. You will enjoy reading his gripping life story.
Through my 33 years with Teen Challenge and my six years as a commissioner with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, I know and have seen people break away from the horrors of drug addiction and find a new life. Few have a story that is as inspiring as Carl’s.
Carl’s dramatic road to recovery is one of faith and courage. It has been an honor to know him and call him a friend.
INTRODUCTION
I know something about the struggles that people encounter. I was an alcoholic, addicted to heroin for ten years, and spent five years locked up in jails and prisons. I have been homeless, hopeless, have Hepatitis C and have had to face cancer. I will take you on a personal journey with me back in time, and cruise our way forward to the present. I will recount what it was like to work as a police officer in a top-secret naval institution on the island of Guam only to become involved in undercover heroin trafficking. I will take you down the roads I traveled where drug addiction led me from high security prisons to being released only to become homeless and aimlessly wandering for months at a time.
This book is for everyone who feels like they have been too far away to ever come back, too depressed to ever be happy or too addicted to ever have their life changed. You may be on the verge of giving up, but God wants you to know that if He can change my life, He can and will change yours! This book is also for the friends and family members of someone who is struggling with substance abuse. Read and learn the thought processes of a hard-core addict…and how I found my way out of my living nightmare. Not one of these horrific experiences was too much for God to handle. He had already made plans for you and me to be “more than conquerors” in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:37). Only God could change the horrible life I made for myself into sweet mountaintop victories. As I leapt into the abyss of drugs and despair, God was planning to raise me up into a place of influence and honor. He changed my life and I can testify to the miracle of the truth of His Word.
This journey will account for how I went from a happy-go-lucky, typical high school kid to a “hope-to-die” dope fiend; from a heroin addict in and out of prison to the happily married husband of a wonderful Swedish woman. I then became an ordained minister and chaplain, a teacher, a counselor and then the father of the most beautiful little blue-eyed girl in the whole world.
This life-changing story is told openly and transparently with the hope that you will read and look just a bit closer for the directions from God in your own journey. The times in my life I listened to God were incredibly adventurous and fruitful experiences. On the other hand, when I lived for myself and shunned God, my life reaped a harvest of destruction, loneliness, complete chaos and sorrow.
I pray this book helps you (or someone you know) to find true freedom and experience the most incredible love anyone can have— a deep, unconditional love relationship with your Creator, Jesus Christ.
CHAPTER ONE
GUAM’S HIGHS AND LOWS
It was 1972, the Vietnam War was in full swing, and the protests were in high gear. President Nixon was in the daily news, there was talk of impeaching him for the Watergate scandal, and the universities were continuously in an uproar. It was the age of “flower power,” “free love” and the mellow “hippies” with long hair who smoked grass and took LSD. On the other side of things was “the establishment”: the military with their crew cuts and the rednecks with their bumper stickers that read, “America, Love It or Leave It.” I was not really in either one of these groups but I did have somewhat long hair, I liked to surf and had smoked my share of weed. I thought it was normal; everyone else I knew smoked it too including some of my friends’ parents.
One day, I realized I was going to graduate from high school very soon and what was I going to do then? My father addressed me one afternoon on the subject as I was walking out of the house. Casually he asked, “Carl, what are your plans after you graduate?” I said, “I would like to go to college.” My father replied, “You know your brother is going to college and he has been there for two years; I don’t think I can afford for you to stay here at home and go to college too.”
This caught me off-guard, and I was deeply hurt. I felt what I did many times before—that my father favored my older brother over me. This confirmed that my dad was more interested in Calvin’s life than mine. I tried to hide the shock and hurt on my face. All I could say was, “O.K., then I will figure out something else.” A couple days later I found myself down at the Armed Forces Recruiters office. I walked in and right past the Army, Navy, and Air Force offices to the Marines. I heard that the Marines were the tough guys; I thought I would belong with them. It was lunchtime and the Marine recruiter was out of his office.
The Navy recruiter noticed me when I had walked by and he stepped out into the hallway. He asked, “Would you like some information on the Navy since the Marine recruiter is not around?” I said, “Sure, O.K.” He gave me some tests and interviewed me; I told him about my work experience; we talked about my scuba diving and work as a delivery and set-up person to hospitals and homes with medical supplies. He seemed to be interested in the scuba diving license I had, and my wrestling background. (I took the “gold” medal in junior high for the San Diego County Division).
The recruiter tried to talk me into the Navy Seals, but after he explained what extreme training the Seals had to undergo, with hell week, etc., I decided to go in a different direction and enlist for four years. I was guaranteed a Class A school after basic training in San Diego. The schooling was to become a Hospital Corpsman and the training would be at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego. I wanted to think about it some. Interested in his reaction, I went home and told my father that I had joined the Navy. He looked at me and said, “Oh, that’s good Carl. The Navy is a good choice.” I figured the Navy must not be too bad, so I went back in a few days and joined. When you graduate from training, you are the equivalent of a paramedic. The Hospital Corpsmen were the ones they were sending to Vietnam to go out in the jungles where the battles were taking place.
Corpsmen are the field medics; the only downside was that out of every ten Corpsmen sent there, only two would come back alive— not very good odds for an
