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In the service, I was in Special Ops but I can't get into that discussion. I could read, write and speak French and prior to being Vietnam, it was French Indo China. Enough said about that.

I was discharged in San Francisco on July 9, 1965, but I had to wait for my best friend, Marcel Aubin AKA Mack, who was also in the Navy. We went in together but obviously we weren't stationed together and he was discharged in San Diego.

He had a car and we decided we were going to drive home together. I had an uncle, one of my father's younger brothers who was living out there with his wife. My uncle was working for my future father-in-law, a chef. What the guy could do with food is unbelievable. He was artistic, creative and he used to call himself a cook. Louie was a chef and he fit the part.

Mac and I went to visit my uncle in Palm Springs and I met my future mother-in-law there. She had her daughter's picture on the mantle. She said her daughter was in Rhode Island visiting her grandparents. Her mother told me, "Now don't expect a little girl here. She is a big one."

Mac and I returned east and Barbara and I hooked up. We dated a little bit. She then returned to California and we kept in contact.

One thing led to another. We just hit it off. Barbara and I shared a lot of the same values. She was a looker and a keeper. Everybody in my generation at that time got married. It was the thing to do. She had the hots for me more than I had for her. We got married one year to the day that I was discharged from the Navy.

I was always involved in politics to some degree or another. I started the Police Reserves in 1973  with Bill Mack and Gene Cloutier, who just died on Dec. 4, 2005 at the age of 69. Fortunately at that time I happened to be on the right side of the political fence. The mayor of Woonsocket happened to be my old football coach in high school. So I was one of the founders of the Woonsocket Police Reserve.

The Police Reserve consists of sworn officers and carry weapons. We had to go to a police academy. It was only part-time and Mac got selected to go full time. Our original idea was (that) we would be able to give some interested young people the opportunity to try police work on a part-time basis.

Our primary responsibilities were paroling city buildings, schools and city parks, assist in traffic and crowd control and fire actions. If there ever was a riot in the city they could call us in.

And all of us were employed in other jobs. I worked for two radio stations. I was an account executive at the first one and a police and fire reporter for a local weekly newspaper -- police and fire news. It came out on Sunday. On Saturday morning I'd drive to the local police stations to get their overnight reports. Then I would come back and put it all together.

The first station I worked for was owned by the local newspaper, which had the market pretty well locked up. The opposition was just a single radio station on the other side of town. I went to work there as the sales manager after I was refused a promotion.

I was drinking in those days too. I don't know when I crossed that magical line from being a drinker to a heavy drinker to an alcoholic.

I had two kids. I had a family growing up. You know, you've got to make money. And they paid us for Police Reserve work. Five bucks an hour when you were on patrol.  But in 1973 I was promoted to sergeant and was paid six bucks an hour. It was my beer money. That's where my police career started. I stayed with the reserves for 14 years.

I worked undercover in 1978 for nine months doing drug buys and working prostitution. We had prostitution, which will always be around and we had a very heavy drug problem -- a lot of drugs --kids, adults, the people who lived on the high side of town, the Jewish section, the rich Irish section of the city. I remember one guy who bought his wife $5,000 worth of cocaine.

You're going to have a nice vacation. They were afraid that if I participated in the raids, I could probably get offed. The department promoted me to sergeant.

At the end of 14 years, the mayor at that time didn't believe in the Police Reserves.  And he happened to be on the wrong side of my fence and I happened to be on the wrong side of his face. We just didn't like each other. He killed the Police Reserves.

I went to Bryant College, which is now Bryant University. They were offering a law enforcement degree. I went to school nights, started in 1975 and received an associate' s degree in 1980).  I used my GI benefits to get an associate' s degree.

I was drinking during all those years and I ran for City Council twice. In 1988, the kids were pretty well grown up. Barbara and I decided we were going to sell the house. I was going to quit my job and we were going to move up to New Hampshire. We bought a lakeside condominium up there.

One weekend when we were up there, my wife said that she liked it. I said if you like it honey, buy it. Give her a check for 500 bucks. Stupidity, you know, Of course I had crossed the line into alcoholism then.

And then that's when the booze turned up. In fact I had a heart attack in 1988, and a microcardial infarction (at age 45). We moved up there. I applied for police chief jobs. Got nowhere naturally. Started my own business. Coupon club, going out to restaurants, marketing coupons, 10% off , 5% off. It was the worse winter in New Hampshire's history to do this. No skiers, no snow and I lost the 12,000 bucks that we had because I had grandiose ideas.

She worked for a Wolfeboro, NH accounting firm owned by three men. One of the wives was a social services director at Huggins Memorial Hospital. She called her, and I guess she had talked to her about my drinking. She said I will find you a bed.

I had no beer now and I had finished the Scotch. I sent her (Barbara) to a convenience store down the road. I kept on drinking beer and we talked. She got a phone call back. The woman said "Get him to Portsmouth Regional Hospital. They found a bed for him." That's 75 miles away. (Barb) said "So what do I do if he wants to drink?" "'Buy him a six pack for the road," she answered.

We drove to Portsmouth from Freedom, New Hampshire. I remember walking down the hall into the hospital. I had jeans on and a flannel shirt, duck boots, big heavy jacket, baseball cap and I remember saying: 

I was hospitalized there for three weeks. I started to feel better. I wanted to get back into law enforcement so my psychiatrist said I can't put down alcoholism because that will kill your chances. So he did me a favor and put me down as being geographically depressed. Having left Rhode Island to go to New Hampshire in an area with all strangers.  And after three weeks, when the insurance ran out they pronounced me well.

We went back to Freedom. And in another case of there not being any coincidences, I stretched one morning in bed and pulled a muscle in my back -- painful, very painful. Barbara drove me to the emergency room, which is 20 miles away from Freedom in Willsboro. We hit every bump on the way.

They (said) I gotta come in here three days a week for physical therapy. They used to treat me with cold and heat. Well isn't it amazing that my appointments were Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11. 

I went through a period of really hating my father, but when I got sober, I got a different perspective on it. When I went into the service, the four years that I went away, my father grew up. In reality it wasn't dad that grew up. It was me. Actually, he turned out to be my best friend.

I stayed in New Hampshire for a month, I was having a problem. I wanted to drink. I was going to meetings. I was miserable up there. All of our friends were back in Rhode Island. I said to my wife one day that I have to get out of here if I want to get sober. I can't do it here. First of all everybody is a stranger. They don't like us up here. They call us flatlanders.

She said this is home. We sold our house. We got rid of things. We donated furniture. I said I've got to go back to Rhode Island and she asked where I was going to go.

I called a fella. Herve, who was like a surrogate father to me. I was in the Lions Club with him. I do have an extensive history with The Lions and the Jaycees. I called him. I said I want to get sober and I can't do it up here, and I want to come back to Rhode Island. He said his daughter's bedroom was empty and that I was welcome to come and stay with him and his wife Ruth.

So I went back to Rhode Island, got myself a job with a car rental agency. Then I worked for an armored car company. Herve never charged me a dime. I got sober and I would commute on weekends to New Hampshire and Barbara would commute on alternate weekends. And that's how we lived from May 1989 to January of 1990. Then she got a job in Rhode Island and came down. The rest is history.

I worked at a couple of menial jobs for five bucks an hour. Finally, I'm 47 years old, starting with early sobriety and I said I have to get into something with long-lasting results.

A friend of mine retired full time from the police department in Woonsocket. He was a lieutenant. and was working as a police officer for the VA Hospital in Providence. He is a Catholic deacon with degrees. He knew of my drinking escapades because my ex-wife used to call him when I went on escapades.

I called him up and said Lou, I need a job. He said there was going to me an opening in the police department. but it wasn't going to be for five or six months.

"I can get you in as a housekeeper, cleaning toilets and all that stuff. At least it will get you in the door."

I said fine. So I took the job, worked nights, 3-11, for eight, nine bucks an hour and the opening happened in the police department at the Veterans Administration Hospital.

Every VA hospital has a police detachment because it's federal property. You have to go to the Police Academy in Little Rock. They sent me to Little Rock. I joined the police department full-time, joined the FOP, became union president for a while, and was union steward for a while.

I did nine years there. That job was worse than being a full-time policeman on the street. We were unarmed, no weapons. We had a nightstick, Mace, handcuffs, our hands and our minds.

In a VA hospital setting, 70% of the employees are female, nurses, lab techs and secretaries. They all don't come from harmonious family relationships. Some of them have restraining orders against their boyfriends.

Some boys will be boys. Some of the nurses and some of the female staff have been assaulted by other VA employees or people off the grounds. Cars are stolen. The VA police are there to protect the patients, the staff.

It's ridiculous. We did the whole gamut of police work, investigations, wrote out tickets. I used to be notorious for ticketing the pizza drivers. They come to the hospital, the speed limit is 15 mph. They gotta deliver their pizza while its hot. You've got people walking around, people in wheelchairs. You can't just allow these clowns to just run around at will.

I did nine years and after 444 disturbances -- I kept records -- some were violent. Some were not violent. We had a lot in the psych ward. Sometimes you get veterans who didn't want to take their medication. Sometimes we had to put veterans in the quiet room. Sometimes we had to put them in bed and tie them down. I got into more fights at the VA than I did when I was a street cop - a very very dangerous, thankless job.

There were veterans there that I saw at AA. I had a lot of success with drunks because at this time I was more active with AA. So I knew these guys. So they would tend to listen to me because they wouldn't tend to listen to some of the other cops. And it takes one to know one.

So finally I went to my last confrontation in June or July 1999. One guy that my partner and I confronted was an ex-con, a veteran with tattoos on his neck, and we witnessed him head butt a nurse.

I'm standing outside in front of the ER with Wally my partner and the thought came to me - Wally and I looked at each other, we worked together for a long time -- so we knew each other's moves. Wally always went high. I always went low when we had to confront somebody. And I got my nightstick in my hand and I got my Mace and I'm going to pepper this guy if I have to. I'm gonna have to hurt him before he hurts me or Wally.

And then it dawned on me, what the hell am I doing here? I'm 56 years old. I have heart trouble. I have spinal cord compressions. I have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, peripheral artery disease, and arterial sclerosis. I only got a few years left in my life. And I'm not going to spend it hobbling around because of one of these bums. This guy is out to hurt somebody. Fortunately it didn't turn out bad. He surrendered quietly.

I have two kids whom I'm extremely proud of, a 39-year-old daughter, who had a paralytic stroke when she was five. And she has some brain damage as a result of the stroke, as well as physical damage. She lives in Tucson. And I'm happy to say she's a member of AA. She's a year behind me. She saw her father drink her whole life. I saw my father drink and he saw his father drink.

 I have a 37-year-old son who's an executive with Nokia

 In high school I was so thin I couldn't make the varsity. They would have killed me. I was never much of a jock. I played Little League baseball. In fact when my son was growing up, I coached his Little League team. It's funny because, he must have been six or seven. We'd go for the first practice. I said, "Go out to right field." My son looked at me and said "Where's right field?" So I had to point him in that direction. But he's a jock. He loves sports.

He's got three boys and they're the ones who are going to benefit from all of these toys model fire engines and police cars). That's all going to my grandson. My oldest grandson, his name is Griffin, his mother is Irish so they have Irish names. And the little one is Garrett He's the trouble guy, the one who doesn't give a shit about anything. And the baby's name is Jeffrey.

Griffin is the gentleman. And Jeffrey, he's the baby. We don't know what he's going to be like. Those three guys are what I live for. Their father is very successful. We are not in a harmonious relationship right now. I've corrected him on a couple of things.

You see his father is very opinionated. And right now he's going through what I went through - young buckitis. I'm making good money, I'm a big shot, and I'm successful, blah blah blah. I think when he reaches maturity, which might be hopefully soon, or in his 40s or 50s, he's going to realize that I pissed away six or seven or eight years of life with my father that I could have had. But I don't need him any more. That's my case. I could be dead wrong. Right now I don't like him very much, but I love him to death. I think out of my two kids, my son is like his mother. He doesn't talk. My daughter is like me. We're a couple of gabby nuts. We never shut up.

Barbara and I e-mail each other from time to time. I don't hate her. I didn't want the divorce but I realize that during my years of alcoholism I put that woman through hell. And I realize in the long run that she was just as sick as I was for staying with me and putting up with that crap.

I was married to Barbara for 30 years and we had two lovely children. That's who I spent the better part of my life with. Now I'm with another wonderful woman (Rosie) I met her after Barbara and I decided to divorce -- after Barbara decided to divorce. I'm a big believer in family. Family to me is everything

I went through life with a lot of hate and anger and fear and frustration . And now that I'm in recovery, my life is totally different. My grandparents didn't know any better. They did the best they could. My parents didn't know any better. They did the best they could. When my kids were growing up. I didn't know any better and their mother didn't know any better. We did the best that we could. That's just the way it is.

I met Rose after Barb and I decided to divorce. I was sitting at home being very depressed. I didn't want the divorce. My AA sponsor at the time said you cannot be sitting in the house. You gotta get out. You go to work and you come home. You gotta get out.

He said, Monday night I want to meet you at this bowling alley, be there. I went and joined a bowling league. Rosie was on one team and I was on another team. We saw each other a couple of time a year.

I knew that  there was no redemption in my marriage. It was not coming back. I still carry a heavy heart on that today. A lot of it is my fault because of my antics when I was drinking. I was not a nice guy at the end of my drinking.

I  dated Rosie a few times. One thing led to another. She was divorced, living in a five-room apartment. I was living (in a nearby town) in an empty house with  my son and one other guy who I sponsored in AA. Finally Rosie and I got together and that was it. We've been together for 10 years.

I was medically retired from the VA on Sept. 1, 1999. On Sept. 11 I was recuperating from  double bypass cardiac surgery. I remember, and I was still heavily sedated. I never saw the result of the first plane (crashing into the World Trade Center) and I asked Rose what was that. She said, we're under attack. And of course I'm sedated.

Rosie is the one who lives with me every day. She's the one that takes care of me. She's the one that has to put up with the bullshit of my early sobriety. I was only sober 3-1/2 years when Barbara left. And I want to make sure she's taken care off for the rest of her life. My goal is to make sure that she's OK and my daughter is OK. My son doesn't need my money. He told me out of his mouth to my ear. Leave my half to my sister because I really don't need it. Dad, I'm very successful.

I think that there's a life hereafter. The body is just a vessel. The body dies. The spirit lives. I happen to believe in heaven and hell. I've already been to hell, now I'm trying to redeem myself. A lot of the crap that I pulled when I was drinking....Alcoholism is a sickness. It's not a failure of moral character. It's not a weakness. It's an illness. Alcoholics are allergic to alcohol.

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