My Army Life and Alcoholism (Part II) – By Rick Williamson

Read Part I of Ricks story here

“On my second day in Germany, I got so drunk that the hangover lasted for three days…….”

I drank and got drunk almost everyday that I spent in Germany. When I first got there, I fell in love with their beer and food. I never drank American beer during that time, except when I came home on leave.

On my second day in Germany, I got so drunk that the hangover lasted for three days and I had never been so sick in my entire life. I thought it would never end and of course, I swore off drinking. I can only remember an eighteen day period that I did not drink while in Germany and that was because I was in the hospital with a broken neck.

That hiatus ended shortly after I got back to my unit. During this tour, I met, married and divorced my second wife. As it turned out, I didn’t like being alone and she didn’t like living with a drunk. I also thought I could fill the void left by the separation from my two sons, but I was wrong. After three years of fighting, we divorced, but not before she went to my commander and claimed that I was having an affair with a co-worker and that I was abusive to her and her two sons.

Because of these allegations it was mandatory that I be evaluated by a Drug/Alcohol Therapist/Psychologist. Had these accusations been founded, my career would have ended immediately, if not sooner. One week after I met with the therapist for the first time, my ex and her two sons left Germany for good, and our divorce was final three months later.

I was alone yet again, but happier this time. Soon after the second divorce, my tour in Germany came to a close, which was a blessing in disguise because the work relationship with my commander was totally destroyed by the accusations from my ex. There was virtually no trust or respect left between my commander and I and to work side by side was strenuous to say the least.

As a result, I requested a transfer from Germany back to Korea. Another reason for this transfer was so that I could be reassigned from Korea to Ft Lewis, Washington at the end of the tour in Korea. This is what we sometimes called “Military Intelligence. “April 1987, I arrived back in Korea for another twelve month tour. Shortly after arrival, I was informed that my reassignment to F.t Lewis wouldn’t happen until 1989. So, rather than accept reassignment to Kentucky, which is where my two sons were, I opted to stay in Korea for an additional two years, making it a three year tour.

History repeated itself once again. I was alone, pissed off at the world and drinking heavily on a daily basis. To fill yet another void, I met and married my third wife. I didn’t put much thought into this marriage either. In April 1989, I finally received orders reassigning me to Ft Lewis, Washington, which I had been trying to get for over eight years. While stationed at Ft Lewis, my ex-wife #3 attended and graduated from beauty school, purchased a beauty salon with my money, got her driver’s license, had a four or five year affair with someone besides myself, and she got greedy. Our marriage lasted just over nine yrs.

“No matter how much I drank, the pain of not being with my boys just would not go away.”

From 1982 until 1986, I had absolutely no contact with my sons. This was not by my choice. I thought about them everyday, and with every thought of them, I drank just a little more. No matter how much I drank, the pain of not being with my boys just would not go away. Their mother asked me in 1982 to remarry her and when I refused, she promised to make my life a “Living Hell.” And she did. In November 1996, I had a proverbial bombshell dropped on me. I was sitting at home one morning having my usual breakfast of scrambled eggs and beer, and I got a phone call. It was from my youngest son telling me that he and his brother were moving……..