European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 3, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Aga inc drug and alcohol abuse control officer capt. Monte Prather of Torres Nab Spain i m not Here to fight a War. Extra duties As i Nass Ned by Rosemary Sawyer staff writer he Man who brought his 15-year-old son and the son s drug paraphernalia into the social actions office at Torrejon a Spain thought he was doing the Best thing for him. He was. Only at the time he did t realize it. Social action s capt. Monte Prather knew he was doing the Best thing for the kid Only at the time it did t feel like it. The father did not know what to do with the stuff so he brought it Over to social actions said Prather. The thing about it is when we get drug paraphernalia we be got to turn it Over to the office of special investigations and Osi s going to want to know where we got it. That is going to Hurt. That will Hurt a lot because you try to establish rapport and then you have to go Back and say of we have to turn this stuff in and the police Are going to be knocking on your door asking you questions " Safe s drug and alcohol abuse control officer of the year said this dilemma and others like it have caused him Many sleepless nights. In his office the 34-year-old former enlisted airman from Atlanta sits beneath a huge portrait of Martin Luther King or. The Black civil rights Leader s pensive pose probably resembles Prather s on nights he wrestles with right and wrong. Prather Calls King his idol one whose standards he strives toward daily. King handled every situation with humanity he said. Now How the humanity manifests itself is what gets me in a quagmire sometimes. I do Wear this he said pulling at his air Force Blue shirt but i m also human so just because you put this on does t mean you re not human. That s what we try to get people to  that s what Prather tried to get that father and son to understand after he told them he was going to pass the paraphernalia to the authorities. Like Martin Luther King jr., Prather works within the system in his Case the air Force system. Wednesday Augusta 1988 i m not Here to fight a War. I m Here to do a Job. I think i can make a difference in what Way i think Only god  Prather refuses to recognize his Safe individual award As a Solo Effort. He credits his make a difference staff of three for being aggressive and not sitting Back. While air Force regulations that spell out the role of a social actions office say nothing about puppet ering Prather and staff members master sgt. James o. Delmar staff sgt. Denise m. Shepard and Emma b. Terrel have put on puppet shows to teach school children about the dangers of drug abuse. They be also been known to rap with High school students in the dorm and Busy themselves with myriad other extra duties As Munass greed. Prather and his staff always put the airman first. Interacting with service members constitutes 90 percent of their workload but Prather and his staff won t be bridled by parameters of air Force legs. By launching educational ventures aimed at the base populace that outnumbers their staff 1,000 to one we feel we re just doing what our Job entails. Trying to get the word out not Only to the military members but to the Community at Large Prather said. To say that we hold our Little Empire just for the military would be selfish. We want to spread the wealth out spread out the knowledge As much As  the staff is responsible primarily for running base drug and alcohol abuse rehabilitation programs. Each month persons with alcohol and drug problems attend an intensive 10-Day program followed by 60 Days to one year of bimonthly visits. Airmen who Are told to attend the drug course Are normally discharged but they continue to offer the training Prather said because there s life after the air  most program attendees Are ordered to the program because of a positive urinalysis or alcohol related incident. Up to 40 percent however come on their own volition a percentage that Prather said runs higher than for most programs. Believe it or not we have quite a few people who will come Over. What the staff has done is we have shown the base that we care Over Here. It s not me who does that it s the staff said Prather who s the first to admit his duties weigh heavily on the paperwork Side. Family members with drug or alcohol problems particularly concern Prather and his staff. Family members Don t have to come Over Here he pointed out. We gotta open up doors and cracks and stick our feet in when we can with the family  Shepard who s organizing an al teen program for teen age children of parents with alcohol problems and works extensively with youth said american kids in Spain face a tempting cultural scenario where booze runs almost As freely As pop. If you can pull up to a bar and you have Money they la sell it to you. It s not like us when we were kids bribing the liquor store  such adolescents and younger kids especially need attention because sometimes they get lost As to where they need to go Prather said. The hours Shepard and others work to develop rapport with kids can work More than an ounce of prevention. A lot of the kids who come into the military Are just out of High school and they learn their drinking habits in High school and Junior High. So we want to educate them to make the right decisions then so they won t have to come to a program like this later  each easy going staff member takes a no nonsense approach to leading the rehab program. Although not regimented like Boot Camp As some attendees fear it will be the course prologue goes As follows this is what we do we take it seriously. You can come Over Here and play games if you want but we re not playing a  being told to attend or referring oneself to the rehab lotion program reflects not a punitive action but a rehabilitative one a fact that is often misunderstood Prather said. It does not signal the end of the service member s rank climb. One year after successful completion of the program the Only record of the service member s Ever having attended the course lies in his or her confidential mental health records. One airman even got promoted to master sergeant and received the Stripe while enrolled in the program. The stars and stripes Page 13