My American Story Part 1

My American Story
by
Craig Michael Crawford

Someone is bound to ask, so I might as well get my side of my American story out in the open first. I am trying to continue the current story of my life as an American in a more honest manner than I have in the past. I have mentioned my previous wrong doings in the past and the specifics of these instances are for me and the persons affected to deal with and sort out. I also am in desperate need to complete an inventory of my current situation to identify what is necessary to rectify my life.

All life stories start at birth, so that is where mine should begin. I was born November 3rd, 1979 in Fontana, California. I was the 6th of what would be 7 children and my parents were two of the hardest working people I have ever known. I'm sure that is where my strong work ethic was also born. We grew up in Rancho Cucamonga for the first decade of my life. My father worked hard for Albertons distribution company for many hours a day for many years to support us all.

My mother suffers from manic depression (now called bipolar disorder). Her condition caused my life as well as my siblings to be extremely erratic at times. I would find out later on in life bipolar disorder affects me as well. At the age of 10 my family moved out of the inland empire seeking larger, more affordable housing just past the inland empire in the up and coming high desert. Shortly after this my mother had another breakdown, only this time it was different. Maybe because I was old enough now to see what was really happening, or maybe because her manic episodes had been getting increasingly worse. After many long nights not knowing where our mother was, and even worse nights where we did know where she was, every child left in the house gave up on her ever being a mother to any of us again. That is when I started hating lots of things. Hate is one of the worst emotions I can hang on to as a person. Luckily I still had a strong family who is always and will always be there for me.

I became a driven teenager and young adult. As a teenager I held any job I could find in the floundering desert economy, knowing there would always be a job for someone who works both hard and smart. Towards the end of high school I considered the Marine corp like my father and the Navy like my grandfather. I chose to accept the allure of the open seas entering the United States Navy. Being an intelligent young man and excellent student I was accepted to the Naval Nuclear Power generation program. I signed up with my fathers permission the day after my 17th birthday. I graduated high school early, and left for boot camp almost 2 months later. I found out just prior to leaving that my ex girlfriend was now pregnant and I was to be a father at the age of 17.

Like all of the challenges I had faced in the past, I was determined to deal with this one as a responsible adult and marry my ex girl friend and be there to raise our son. I went off to boot camp, then nuclear machinist mate “A”school in Orlando, FL, where my now wife and and son would come live with me. I completed “A” school and nuclear power school finishing high in my class. We then moved to Charleston, SC for the last leg of my training in nuclear power. While there I finished the entire self directed training program first in my class and even got a part time job delivering pizzas before my 6 months was up. Now being a fully licensed nuclear reactor operator I was stationed to my first permanent duty station, the USS Salt Lake City (SSN-716). We were stationed out of San Diego, CA. I left on deployment 2 days after reporting to my boat. I enjoyed parts of my deployments, but for the most part it involved a lot of depressing wasted time.

After spending a unexplainable 123 straight days under the water during this first deployment I was acclimating to life aboard my submarine. I did love my job and was very good at it. I qualified every watch station earlier than my peers and was instrumental in numerous projects. I have always taken the initiative to learn all I could about all aspects of my assigned tasks. I was a valuable member of the nuclear submarine community. I was early promoted twice, and after almost 2 years on board I decided to make this my career that I would retire from at the age of 37. I had a wife and a son who I loved very much, and now owned a home in Temecula, CA. I always operated within the bounds of the law and was adamant about supporting this kind of behavior. I was a productive, patriotic, hard working, tax paying American. That was the year 2000.

Since the year 2000 my life has taken a dramatic turn. Late in the year 2000 I was on my second deployment, when I met a woman in Australia. I tended to have extreme emotional swings every time we would enter port, and had some trouble with drinking in previous ports. Australia was no different, except this time I met a beautiful amazing person. She and I were born on the same day and she was everything I thought I wanted. I almost didn't even go back to my ship, she had to convince me. I was resolved to leave my wife and son and marry this woman I had known only for about 3 days. Needless to say this was out of character for me. I did however move out of my house and got an apartment in San Diego. During this time I also became convinced of several different methods I devised to become rich gambling. I let this consume me for several years after. I wish I never walked into a Casino. Needless to say I was on the verge or in the midst of a severe mental break...how am I supposed to know.

Just after Christmas time I began realizing what I was doing and became extremely depressed. I started not being able to get to my boat on time and actually missed a day. There is no allowance for missed days in the military. I know that, I was never one to condone these types of actions which I was now performing. I used cocaine a few times on the advise of my shipmates..... good advise. But it did get me to work a few more times before I decided to go AWOL and drive to Washington. I spent almost 30 days AWOL and returned to San Diego and checked in at Balboa Naval Medical Center. After diagnosis of bipolar disorder and about 3 weeks of inpatient care, I was released from the Naval Hospital with a treatment plan of sedation by Lithium. I was then transferred back to my command for disciplinary actions, and processing for medical discharge from the military. I was ordered to participate in 8 weeks intensive in-patient drug and alcohol treatment. I disagreed with this treatment and refused that I had any problems with drugs or alcohol. I was told I would be processed for discharge ASAP. I had not had any follow up treatment or even a doctor assigned to take my blood work, just a Lithium prescription and orders to take 500mg twice daily. I soon ran out while waiting for something to happen and had another episode where I left and went AWOL for about 6 days. I don't remember much of this one. But when I got back I was out of my medication which allowed me to at least get an appointment with a doctor at 32nd st Naval Station.

During this appointment, the doctor who was assigned to me asked me about 15 questions, and it lasted no more than 10 minutes. Most of which he was writing. At the end he informed me I no longer needed lithium treatment and I was not bi-polar. Also since now I had no medically disqualifying conditions I would be processed for discharge expeditiously under other than honorable discharge. The only service I gave my country was not other than honorable. I always gave my country more than 100% up until the time I needed some help to deal with my mental illness, and the problems it created in my life. When that time came and I was dropped by the service that I loved, I began to hate a lot more things. Things that I once loved passionately. Most importantly myself and my country.

I have since been diagnosed several times and there doesn't seem to be any doubt I do suffer from bipolar disorder with sometimes extremely rapid cycling. I believe this illness was not created by my extremely stressful time I spent serving my country aboard the USS Salt Lake City. But spending months at a time with no natural light, in closed confined quarters, hundreds of feet under the water, with decreased oxygen levels sometimes as low as 16% could not have aided in healthy proper brain function.

From that point(Apr 2001) to now almost 10 years I have slowly slipped further and further away from society. These are the times I am most ashamed of because I knew I needed help, knew how to get help, but was unable to do what it took to put myself on a path to recovery. I guess I just had to wait another decade, and wander the desert like a madman looking for answers until they finally came to me.

That is where we are today. I am a once hopeless, recovering everything trying to deal with my mental illness in a way that I see fit for my own body and mind. I like most of our state governments am broken. I am penniless much like many Americans and Mexican all across this nation. I do not have the legal right to drive a vehicle. I do not carry insurance. I have not filed taxes since the year 2000 and owe the IRS a considerable amount of money. I have an extremely large amount of unpaid debts. I have not spoken to my only son in almost 2 years. I know of one warrant but there is probably 2 right now because I have not been able to pay my child support obligations. Given the weight of all these problems (theres more I'm sure but these are the main ones), it would be easy to lose all hope that the future will hold anything positive for me. That is why now more than ever my plan to resurrect the American economy will work.

I am not alone in my feelings of hopelessness. Too many Americans and Mexicans have no idea of what hope feels like. I guess that is what makes me a little different, I came from a family where hope, faith and love were always plentiful resources.

It is time for all of us that call ourselves patriots to stop accepting the fact that our government has stopped looking after our best interests. We all know that we are in this economic situation by our own doing. We made the policies which drove the Mexican economy into almost 3rd world conditions. We used illegal labor to complete our home construction projects which we flipped for millions of dollars. WE DESERVE TO HAVE THE HOUSING MARKET CRASH!!! We let the financial sector and private interest groups control governmental policies and drive our economy straight to the toilet, then let the CEO's who blatantly stole millions from Americans off the hook. We continue to deny or delay the ability to install a border fencing system that effectively secures our borders. We let drugs, drug dealers, murderers come into our country daily and we cannot do a thing about it. Our American way of life will not continue to exist if Americans don't realize this. It's time we did the right thing for America, and the right thing for the world and secure our future as a world leader.

















2nd Chance Border Community Homesteads

My plan will have a complete(1951 miles) secure border fencing system and monitoring systems in place by spring 2011. In addition to a secure safe division of our two countries, each country will be taking the necessary steps to ensure their citizens basic rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. None of us are happy right now. With my plan we can turn hate and anger into hopes and dreams. My plan will also alow our governments to receive the tax dollars and the political support necessary for long term stable growth and transition into a new “green” world economy. I can't imagine the president of the United States can argue too many of these points with me because he himself has made most of them at one point or another.

My plan will begin at the beginning where you should start. I am a native Californian and American patriot. I like most my family members have served or are serving in the military. I am focusing my research on the san diego and imperial counties of California. I was stationed on Point Loma Naval Subbase where I could see the beautiful Coronado Islands in the distance every morning when I would PT out on the point. As a topside linehandler I sailed in and out of the point countless times. I am very familiar, as is most of my immediate family with this area. I have loved this area for a long time and truly desire to see what it could be. We already have the Border Field State park, the Otay Mesa 14 mile stretch and of course the Tijuana border crossing. We all know this tiny amount of protection will not keep out the millions of dollars of illegal drug trafficking and all the associated problems that go along with it.

If our border is completely secure they will not journey through the desert because there will be nowhere to go when they get to the border. And even if they do decide to try when they get close there will be 10000 eyes on every mile of land. So how do we save our future generations from the devastating effects of this drug economy we have created?

WE MUST START WITH A WALL!!!

The LA Times reports the estimated number of people who have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since the start of 2007 is 22,700. The drug cartels have corrupted every facet of life in Mexico especially in border towns. We are still fighting a war over oil that has cost trillions more dollars and has had less deaths since 2007. Are we going to let Mexicans keep dying and let Americans keep killing themselves because we can't build a wall.

If the government won't, I will!!
Let's figure out what it costs to build a good wall:

Number of miles of border: 1951
Cost per mile: here's where it gets tricky
(Bloated government cost for a wall: $49 Billion est. & only 700miles of rinky dink metal fencing)*

Actual costs necessary for my wall: $3 Billion for 1951 miles of tilt up precast concrete walls 20 feet high. Add another $3 billon for a second wall on the Mexico side and add $1 million per mile for survelance equipment makes it close to $8 Billion dollars.
How can they make everything cost so much?
(My cost estimate was taken from an independent cost comparison for common commercial wall systems. I used the figure of $15/sq ft which is pretty close to average for the study of the regions of the southeast. We could put Americans to work making these walls tomorrow.)
http://www.gobricksoutheast.com/CostComparisons/WallCst3.pdf


*The Dec. 12, 2006, nonpartisan congressional report said the corps predicted that the combined cost of building and maintaining the fence over a 25-year life cycle would range from $16.4 million to $70 million per mile, depending on how heavily and how often the fence is damaged by would-be border jumpers. At $70 million per mile, a 700-mile fence would cost $49 billion.
http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-01-08/bay-area/17225174_1_border-fence-border-patrol-arrests-san-diego-border

My 2 walls would be made of “6 inch thick 100% Recyled concrete made in America. Precast systems are competitive with other foundation walls, particularly when costs are examined as an assembly that includes footings and sub-slab drainage. Precast walls can be installed quickly in any weather. Because the concrete is cured in the factory it is installed quickly on site when it arrives. Construction times are further increased with onsite work being performed in advance of wall section delivery. Concrete wall systems will require virtually no maintenance and will last longer than any metal fencing system.

This was taken from the US DEA website:

Drug Situation: Due to California’s diverse culture and unique geography, there are many issues that affect the drug situation in California. Drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana are smuggled into the state from Mexico; however, methamphetamine and marijuana are produced or cultivated in large quantities within the state. San Diego and Imperial Counties remain principal transshipment zones for a variety of drugs – cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine – smuggled from Mexico. Most drug traffickers/organizations that are encountered by law enforcement continue to be poly-drug traffickers rather than specializing in one type of drug. Since September 11, 2001, greater emphasis has been placed on carefully screening people and vehicles at all California Ports of Entry into the U.S. from Mexico. This has forced traffickers to attempt other means to smuggle their contraband into the U.S., including the use of tunnels that run underneath the border and more sophisticated hidden compartments in vehicles. Los Angeles is a distribution center for all types of illicit drugs destined for other major metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. as well as locally. Increased security measures at Los Angeles International Airport continue to deter drug traffickers from traveling through the airport. Although the northern half of California is awash in methamphetamine in more rural areas, heroin remains the number one drug of abuse in San Francisco, heroin and crack cocaine continue to impact Oakland, and methamphetamine continues in and around Sacramento.

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/state_factsheets/california.html

The DEA recognizes the problems but their hands are tied in some respects. California especially needs to clarify their position regarding drugs and the drug culture and economy it has created. We must once and for all make a decision regarding the production and sale of marijuana. If we really think as a state that it has medical uses, then we must have serious studies at the university levels throughout California. Without a doubt this is our biggest potential revenue point. Many states across the union have indeed passed medical marijuana laws. I have my own personal views but for purely economic reasons we can not let an $18 billion a year industry that is already rooted here in California go untaxed and poorly if at all regulated.