HUFFINGTON
09.22.13
INVISIBLE CASUALTIES
more frequent trips back home,
I knew he had people who could
get him the painkillers.”
All that spring, Joshua’s drug
dependence was deepening even
as he remained on active-duty in a
military service with a “zero tolerance” official drug policy. Joshua’s
wife, Leslie, waiting at home in
Henderson, Texas, for his release
from the Navy, called Don several
times, alarmed at Joshua’s gradual
decline. Each time, Don would call
Joshua. Each time, Joshua denied
he was doing drugs.
It was a mystery to everyone
that Joshua managed for five
months to indulge his addiction
and stay on active duty. “I don’t
understand why they weren’t drug
testing him more frequently,” Elliott said of the Navy.
Officially, the Navy requires
each of its commands to conduct
urinalysis tests of 15 percent of its
personnel each month. The Navy
declined to discuss Joshua’s case.
But in response to questions from
The Huffington Post, the Navy released a statement saying in part
that “service members cannot legally be singled out for drug testing” outside of “command-wide
inspections, probable cause tests,
search and seizure, and examinations conducted as part of a mishap or safety inspection.”
In late May 2010, Joshua’s
mother, Melinda, was rushed delirious to a hospital in New Jer-
... when he pleaded with
Joshua to acknowledge
to Navy doctors the
full extent of his
drug problem, Joshua
told him: No way.
sey after an overdose of fentanyl
and Roxicet, according to Navy
records. Joshua was frantic with
worry for her — and anxious that
he would lose access to her painkillers. He later told Navy doctors
he was despondent at the long
delay in getting his medical discharge from the Navy. It meant
he was stuck in what he considered a dull job as a military security guard. He was sick over the
abrupt end of his Navy career.
He was lonely for his wife, Leslie.
And he was worried about having
to support both households until
his medical discharge.
★