My Nonprofit Reviews

Journal Installment #4
Army veteran Jimmy Crumling has an incredible story of overcoming substance abuse, and getting his life back on track. Over the coming weeks Jimmy will share his story about the dark side of what he has been through, and the people that have made a positive influence in his recovery. Jimmy served 22 years in the Louisiana Army National Guard 11B/M. 2 deployments 2004/05 & 2010 both in Iraq. Also worked with at risk youth as a cadre at The Louisiana Army National guard youth challenge program (YCP) in Carville, LA from 2001-03 & 2007-13. If you're a veteran dealing with addiction please reach out to us at www.honoringamericaswarriors.org.

August 24, 2014
I finally heard from my guard captain and he told me he was coming to OKC to bring my retirement papers help me fill the out and personally bring them back to the unit. This is the only thing he did for me. Looking back on it I think he did this just to say look at me I did this. When I asked him about my truck, my National Guard gear and my dog, he mentioned nothing about tough love or you started using again. All the captain did was laugh and say he had been so busy with his retirement from the National Guard and told me now that he is retired now and he he can focus 100% on getting my truck and National Guard gear turned in. As you all know that NEVER happened. That was a very hard pill to swallow. It’s funny how everyone talks about responsibility for your actions until it applies to them. They can blame retirement, too busy or TURN it around and blame me then call it tough LOVE to cover their laziness, lack of responsibility, or lack of integrity.
There was a lady at the nonprofit that was pushing me to get treatment. I kept saying I got this. She was always 100% honest with me and that was a huge reason I never gave up. She was a country girl from Woodward, Oklahoma and didn't sugar coat anything but at the same time she let me figure things out on my own. I hadn’t been out of the Army very long, and I am a hard headed person. I kept thinking I could do it all on my own, I was wrong. So she told me about a week long event in Dry Gultch, OK Called warrior reconnect winning with integrity lead by Dave Roever, a Vietnam veteran who has a program helping wounded warriors find their way home. WOW, what an amazing week of hope. It gave me sense of value and made me realize I could help veterans and this would help me also. They found me a place to stay and a couple other guys who were keeping tabs on me helped me move in to this place. When they saw the place, they weren’t very happy, but it was better than where I had been staying. It was with another veteran who was also a user. I had to sign a contract not to bring or use drugs and had to go to at least one NA meeting a week. How ironic is that? Things seemed great, as it turns out, recovery would still have to wait several months. Ugh.