Veteran starts combat recovery program at Acton Baptist Church

A local Vietnam War veteran will be serving a Chick-Fil-A lunch for all veterans and their families at noon on Saturday, Jan. 29, in the Fellowship Hall at Acton Baptist Church.

The luncheon will serve as a lead-up to a weekly meeting for military veterans as a way for them to talk among their peers about their time in war.

Granbury resident Charley LaFontaine knows firsthand just how much the effects of war and combat can have on a veteran. LaFontaine, who served as an infantry medic in Vietnam from 1966-1967, said that he struggled with his own post-war vices, like alcohol.

“Combat is something ... I don’t have words in my vocabulary to explain what it’s like,” he said. “It’s a metamorphosis. You change. You have to go with it and numb down.”

LaFontaine said that after spending a total of six years in the Army, he immediately turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism, which eventually crossed into alcoholism.

He said that in 1988 he had been sober for a short while, but was still considered a dry drinker — an alcoholic who no longer drinks but otherwise maintains the same behavior patterns of an alcoholic.

But his behavior changed when his 6-year-old daughter, Shana, fell into a coma.

"Her temperature dropped to 93 and they couldn’t get it up,” LaFontaine said. “The doctor said to go ahead and make plans because she wasn't going to make it through the night. I almost relapsed. I almost got a triple scotch and water on the plane but I just said, ‘Look, God, if you're really out there and you don't take my baby, I'll do anything you want me to do.’ And I swear I walked in that Cook Children's hospital and they had her (up) walking in a line. She turned around and saw me and I knelt down and she grabbed my neck and she said, ‘Daddy, why am I here?’ I said ‘I'll tell you baby.’”

LaFontaine said the doctors at Cook Children’s Medical Center were baffled by Shana’s bizarre medical case.

“Doctors came in two days later and said, ‘Look, we can make a million dollar deal out of this but we can't give you a diagnosis. Temperatures don't go down; they go up in kids. We found a 10-year-old boy in Canada, where his temperature dropped to 93.’ I said, ‘Well what do we do?’ He said, ‘Just keep an eye on her, that's all we can tell ya.’ Whenever I was home, I'd get up three times a night and go in there and see if she was breathing — and here we are.”

Shana is now married with two children, with no history of a recurring problem. To this day, her case remains a mystery.

LaFontaine said he hasn’t had a drink in 37 years. He plans to use the experience he gained as a substance abuse counselor to inspire other veterans to give up their drug of choice, whether it’s alcohol, opioids, or other narcotics.

“It's just my passion too,” he said. “If I can save one, which I have, I have been blessed.”

The goal for the weekly peer support group meetings is for veterans to let out their anger, frustration and voice their issues to someone who understands all too well just how combat can affect an individual.

“These guys have to be in a room by themselves to share,” LaFontaine said. “Some things they are just not gonna share with their wives.”

LaFontaine hopes to serve as an outlet for men and women who fought for our country. His goal is to save as many marriages and as many lives as he can.

“An average of 23 veterans commit suicide (each day) across the nation. We need to save these guys so we can save the families, and so we can save the children — that’s my motive and that’s why I put this together.”

Veterans are asked to RSVP for the event by Wednesday, Jan. 26, by calling LaFontaine at 817-300-8326 or Skylar Moses, sandbox Army ranger, at 682-201-7062.

“It's very important to the veterans and really, to the community because if we don't save these marriages, let alone save the guy from committing suicide, there's an opportunity on the table,” LaFontaine said. “I'm gonna keep on getting up every day as long as I can, doing this kind of stuff. There’s only one way out and that’s accepting a higher power greater than yourself.”