Be wise; have a plan when drinking - or one will be made for you ... Published June 7, 2007 By Karen Abeyasekere 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs RAF MILDENHALL, England -- Editor's note: This is the second in a four-part series of information and personal stories from those who have somehow been affected by drinking and driving. As told by Airman Stephanie Holler, 100th Maintenance Squadron Stephanie Holler is 20 years old and in the U.S. Air Force. She was three months away from sewing on Senior Airman stripes when she was charged with driving while impaired on Sept. 16, 2006. She's now an Airman. Her driving license was revoked for one year, and she faced other consequences which still affect her. Here is her story. "I got off work early to do a (Prisoner of War/Missing in Action) retreat, and I made it home between 4:30 and 5 p.m.," Airman Holler said. "A buddy of mine came over and we had a few beers (in my dorm room) before deciding to go to the Galaxy Club. "Then a girl I work with showed up. She'd just gotten off shift, and she works with my ex-boyfriend. She told me he'd been hitting on all these girls at work - so I left the G-Club in a really bad mood and went back to my room to call him." Airman Holler said when she called her ex, he immediately hung up on her. She called him back - but he did the same thing again, so - fuming - she decided she was going to work to see him. Her line of thinking was that then, he'd have no choice but to talk to her. By that time, then-Airman 1st Class Holler and her friends had been drinking quite a bit, and she was even angrier, so she started to walk to work. However, she was wearing high heels and decided it was too far to walk - so she got in her truck. It proved to be a very bad decision. "(When I got in my truck) my friends came over, and some of them decided to jump in with me," she said. "One of them jumped in the back of the truck - he was incredibly drunk that night too. "I had some tires in the back of the truck, and he was standing on top of them. I'd already pulled out of the parking space, but decided my friends were right and I shouldn't drive anywhere, so I pulled back in. When I did my friend fell off the back and landed on his head. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he was completely out of it." Airman Holler said it was pretty frightening - her friend wasn't responding to anything. That's when someone called security forces and an ambulance took him to the hospital. When security forces came, she and the girl who'd told her about her ex-boyfriend got into a fist fight, so they were both handcuffed and taken to the security forces building. "I was given a sobriety test, and then my first sergeant and my shop chief came to pick me up and take me back to the dorms. I'd probably had three bottles of beer in my dorm room, then at least three more in the club - I'd had anywhere between six and eight beers altogether. I actually blew below the legal limit, but because my friend got hurt, I got charged with a DWI." Thankfully, her friend wasn't badly injured - he just had a headache for a while. "When I went back to work on Monday, I had to go in front of the (100th Air Refueling Wing) vice commander and explain to him what happened. Then I had to go in front of my commander and first sergeant in my blues, and they talked to me about it for a little while," she said. It took a while before Airman Holler received her punishment. "I got my driving license revoked for one year, a (letter of reprimand) and an Article 15, along with 30 days extra duty - and I lost a stripe. I should get (promoted to) Airman First Class between August and October of this year, and Senior Airman two years after that. "Now I have to walk everywhere - if I have appointment over at (RAF) Lakenheath then someone I work with has to take me, and I don't like it at all. I try not to make appointments that aren't on this base, because I feel bad asking other people to take me anywhere." Airman Holler's actions also affected her job, as she can't drive at work any more. "In my job we have to drive the flight line. On almost every shift, one person goes out and delivers equipment to the aircraft; I can't do that any more," she said. "During weekend duty, one person works day shift and one person works night shift, and they have to drive the line. So I can't pull weekend duty alone anymore - I go in, and someone else has to go with me so the line can be covered. "I haven't told my mom I got a DWI - she would be really disappointed in me, so I can't do it. She'd be really upset. That was one of my biggest worries when I thought they (the Air Force) were going to kick me out - what my mom would say; I didn't want to disappoint her." What would you do now, if you see someone who's been drinking and is about to drive? "A while ago, a friend of mine was (at the dorms) drinking and was about to drive home. He was definitely stronger than I was, so I went and got every guy who was awake that I knew, and they all came down to where his vehicle was parked. One sat against his driver's side door and another sat against the passenger side door, so there was no way he was getting into that car. "Eventually, I talked him into giving me his keys. I gave them to another guy who was completely sober, and he brought the keys back the next morning before work. "So instead of driving home drunk, he spent the night in my room and I spent the night in a friend's room, and he was able to drive home the next day when he'd sobered up," she said. So what have you learned from this? What words of advice can you offer to others? "I don't think it's fair to say 'don't drink.' But, you should always have a plan - I didn't. Make it so it's not even possible to drive - have someone else, who isn't drinking, take your keys and hide them somewhere you can't find them. If there are people who are going out, off base to party or to a club, you certainly need to have a plan. "Don't think, 'OK - I'm not going to drive' and that's it. Have a back-up plan, because your original plan could always fall through. Now, my friends and I always keep a certain amount of money in one pocket, just for a cab ride home, and money for everything else in another pocket. "If you can afford to go out and drink, you can afford a cab ride home," Airman Holler said.