MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII -- Weekends are the time for U.S. Marines and Sailors aboard Marine Corps Base Hawaii to enjoy their time off work. However, those drinking alcohol should always be responsible and have a plan to return safely home. This is where the Drunk Driving Prevention Program comes in.
“If you find yourself in a situation where you drove somewhere, had a few drinks, and your ‘getting home safe’ falls apart, we have volunteers standing by for your call,” said Hospitalman Second Class Charla Watson, a corpsman with Tripler Army Medical Center, and the operations manager for the Oahu Chapter. “It’s just one more tool we can give our Service members to help prevent the tragedy of driving under the influence.”
Watson said the program was actually started by the U.S. Army.
“Brandon Wagner is our national president, and from what I know of him, Wagner was a military policeman in the Army who started the DDPP,” Watson said. “Although it’s primarily an Army program, it’s still open to all other branches of service.”
Sgt. Cameron Payne, a motor transportation mechanic with Marine Wing Support Detachment 24, and the president of the Oahu Chapter for the DDPP, said you only need to call the DDPP in order to receive a ride.
“How it works is a participant or Service member or anybody that’s a Department of Defense cardholder, calls the program,” Payne said. “That phone number is linked to a volunteer dispatcher who will then call actual volunteer drivers.”
Payne said the volunteers will receive the necessary information from the person needing a ride in order to get them back home.
“They’ll get a call, address, and the make and model of the car,” Payne said. “Two volunteers will pick up the person from their location, and they’ll check their vehicle to make sure it’s safe before they get in. One of the volunteers will get in their own car while the other will put the person’s that drunk in their own vehicle and drive for them.”
Cpl. Jeffrey Cohan, a heavy equipment mechanic with MWSD-24, and a volunteer driver for the DDPP, said he joined the program after hearing a testimony from a fellow Marine.
“One of the sergeants in my shop told me about the program and gave me a backstory about what happened to one person he knew,” Cohan said. “He was doing his first ride along, picked up an officer, and while he was giving him a ride home they rode through a DUI checkpoint. The officer basically explained to him how this program had saved his career and his family.”
Cohan said awareness about the program needs to be raised to help out Service members.
“More chapters need to be created throughout the Marine Corps because the DUI rate in places like Pendleton and Camp Lejeune is high because Marines don’t know about this stuff,” Cohan said. “There they are spending 70 dollars for an Uber to get to and from San Diego.”
Payne said the DDPP has one thing that other services, such as Uber and Lyft, don’t provide.
“We take your vehicle home and it’s completely free,” Payne said. “It’s on the volunteers to put their own gas money in, but it’s a good opportunity for Service members to give back to the community and just making sure we all get home safe.”
For more information contact (808) 888-7407, ddpp.hawaii@ddpp.us, or visit ddpp.us