Think before you drink ... It's not worth your career; it's not worth your life

  • Published
  • By Karen Abeyasekere
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Editor's note: This is the third in a four-part series of information and personal stories from those who have somehow been affected by drinking and driving.

Senior Master Sgt. David Steele, 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs, recounts a story of when he was an additional-duty first sergeant at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in 2001. After receiving a shocking early morning telephone call, he had to go and identify the body of one of his troops who'd been killed in a car accident. It was later discovered she'd been drinking and driving at the time of her death. She was only 26 years old.

"Another guy and I were taking turns as the additional-duty first sergeant, and since I was no longer the acting first sergeant, I was kind of surprised when I got a phone call early one morning," said Sergeant Steele. "I went to another room so I wouldn't disturb my wife." 

The additional duty first sergeant asked Sergeant Steele if he knew a particular Airman, and when he said yes, the shirt told him she'd been killed in an automobile accident. 

"It was like someone had hit me in the stomach," he said. 

Sergeant Steele had helped the young Airman First Class when she arrived at the base, and by doing so he'd gotten to know her well. 

"I picked her up at the airport, and for whatever reason, she came directly to us without going to technical school first. She didn't have a uniform or an ID card, so I helped her get those things, and helped her get set up for work." 

Because he knew the Airman well, he said he felt the pain of losing a troop even more. 

"When I got the phone call, I went in to work right away because I wanted to be there before everyone else. My boss, the commander and deputy commander called me in and talked to me, and we figured out how we wanted to tell everybody before they found out some other way." 

When the rest of the office came in, Sergeant Steele said they were all told to go into the conference room. 

"I was pretty upset, and I told the deputy commander I didn't feel I could tell everybody what happened, so he said he'd be glad to do that. Once everybody was there, we told them what had happened. 

"A lot of people were very upset, because she was really well-liked," he said. "One of the first questions somebody asked was if she'd been drinking. Nobody knew at the time, so we had to wait for the toxicology results to come back." 

The commander then asked Sergeant Steele to go with him to help identify the body. 

"The day had been a big whirlwind since I got the phone call that morning," he said. "I'd come straight to work, so nobody had the chance to (identify her) yet. 

"We went down to the funeral home where her body was. It was me, the commander, the deputy commander and the chaplain. They took us to a big walk-in freezer. (My former troop) had a (civilian) friend in the car with her, and the friend had also been killed. They were both lying out, and they pulled the sheet back and asked me to identify (the Airman's) body," he said, remembering the awful scene. "She'd died of massive head injuries because she was driving. I really had to look at her to know it was her. They also asked me to identify the other person, but I told them, 'I don't know her.' 

"They showed me anyway." 

The senior master sergeant said as a parent, it made him think a lot about how bad it would be to lose a child. 

"It's bad enough, as a parent, to have a child die. But to have to identify that child would be terrible." 

He described the awful sight that greeted him on the table at the funeral home - a sight he'd never wanted to see, and would rather never see again ... 

"Her head was swollen a little, her hair was really messed up, and she still had the plastic resuscitator taped to her mouth. 

"They were trying to find her husband - he was in New York, because it was right after Sept. 11, and he was there as a photographer." 

The Airman's parents were then notified of their daughter's death. 

Sergeant Steele said his former troop had been put in for Airman of the Quarter; she was a sharp troop, someone who was very talented and never got in trouble. 

"When her parents came out, I met with them and told them what I felt about her; she was somebody that was a very good person. I gave them the award packages I'd written for her; because I think a lot of times people just say stuff to be nice. 

"But I wanted to show them she was a good person - she was good in the Air Force - so I gave them some of her packages to show them I wasn't just saying it. It was real." 

Sergeant Steele now talks about his experience at the First Term Airmen's Center. 

"I tell them - 'Don't think about yourself. Don't think about your buddy - think about your parents or someone else you love having to identify you. Is that what you want?' 

"I try and pass that on to them, and I ask if that's what they'd want to do to their child, or if they want to put their parents through that." 

About a week or two after the Airman's death, the toxicology results came in. They showed she had been drinking and driving and was over the legal limit. 

"We heard stories from people who'd been at the club with her that she'd been drinking. But one of the things that made it even worse was somebody there had asked her if she needed a ride home, but she'd said she was OK." 

No one ever found out how the accident happened. 

"One of the things we'd done at the local high schools - when she was still alive - was a show with the Californian Highway Patrols, called 'Every 15 minutes'. It was called that because every 15 minutes, somebody dies in a drunk-driving accident." 

They worked with CHiPs, and the Airman had been working with one patrolman in particular. They put together mock car accident scenarios, and then she videotaped the scenarios. 

"From what I understand, he was one of the first ones on the scene at her car accident - and he found her," said Sergeant Steele. "He didn't realize it was her at first ... but when he did, it affected him pretty badly and he had to go home for the day. Usually you get over that stuff pretty easily, but this one really bothered him." 

When it was discovered the Airman had been killed in the car accident after being over the legal drinking limit, Sergeant Steele said it was like finding out she'd died all over again. 

"Whether you've been in the Air Force for six months, six years or 20 years, that drink is not worth your career - and more importantly, it's not worth your life," he said.