When you’re not an alcoholic but the leadership is convinced you are.

Japan was an interesting place for me. Too bad I was too young (early 20’s) to enjoy it properly as testosterone and hormones made me waste much time in unhealthy pursuits:).

A friend of mine, a Petty Officer 2nd Class in the Navy was arrested one evening for “disrespect to an Airman.” He was drunk and trying to walk out the main gate to go into town for some more nonsensical celebrations. The Airman was a security policeman at the front gate to Misawa Air Base in northern Japan. He saw that Dino and his friends were drunk and tried to prevent them from leaving the base. In retrospect, the Airman did the right thing. At the time, Dino was not too keen on being kept on base and voiced his opinion on the matter. This led to his arrest and subsequent Article 15 charges for conduct unbecoming a non-commissioned officer. Since his blood alcohol level was high, he was put under medical observation for alcoholism.

Dino was not addicted. We’ll call it an environment that condoned a little too much drinking. Dino didn’t drink again after his arrest. Some two weeks later when he was on his confinement to the barracks, he had a medical appointment for his weekly observation. There was a blizzard ongoing and the Navy’s duty vehicle wouldn’t start. So the powers that be made him walk to the hospital, maybe a mile away. When he got to the hospital, his mustache was frozen, along with the rest of him as he was required to be in uniform as part of his confinement and the Navy did not have extreme cold weather gear as part of their issue. Since very few people had ventured out that day, the doctor was able to see Dino right away. In the doctor’s office, Dino was shivering. Without an examination, the doctor said, “A-ha! Look – DT’s. You are experiencing withdrawal symptoms.”

Delirious Tremens are the result of withdrawal, but shivering in this case was something completely different.

Needless to say, Dino did not win this argument because of course, he was in denial…

So they sent him to rehab where he told many great stories of his three week vacation to someplace much warmer than Misawa, although it did cost him a stripe for his misadventure.