Reservist recognized for anti-drug victory

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt Collen McGee
  • 433rd Airlift Wing
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Like the Global War on Terror, the war against drugs has more than one battlefield. The one closest to home is where one Reserve Airman chooses to make her battle stand. For her successful effort, she won a 2005 Government Employees Insurance Co. Military Service Award.
Tech. Sgt. Anita Garcia is the 433rd Airlift Wing’s Demand Reduction program manager.
According to her counterpart from the active-duty’s 37th Training Wing, Mr. Charles Nail, supply reduction is the part of the war on drugs fought in the jungles of South America and locations where street drugs are grown or manufactured. Demand reduction is the part that makes using drugs less desirable. For those in the military it is the knowledge that they will be tested for drug use periodically throughout their careers that acts as a deterrent.
Part of making drug use less desirable is to make individuals 100 percent accountable through an accurate testing process.
Sergeant Garcia explained the testing process is extremely accurate.
“It (each urine sample) goes through three levels of testing,” said Sergeant Garcia. “The third one breaks it down to the specific drug.”
But even a positive reading is not enough. The substance must be present in a high enough quantity to rule out accidental ingestion or secondary exposure.
“It (the result) has to be 100 percent positive - if its 99.9 then it’s a negative result,” said Sergeant Garcia.
To get a specimen tested by the lab at Brooks City Base, everything must be perfect. If there is one mistake on the labeling or the accompanying paperwork, the specimen doesn’t even get tested.
“If there are 12 specimens on a box and a sheet (of accompanying paperwork) going to the lab has a mistake on the paperwork, the whole box is untestable,” said Sergeant Garcia.
GEICO’s recognition of Sergeant Garcia comes because she came to a program with a 20 percent untestable rate and brought the number of untestable specimens to less thanone percent. Not only did she create a perfect record for the 433rd Airlift Wing Demand Reduction program, she and her co-worker, Tech. Sgt. Leasel Jones, have kept the rate at zero for two consecutive years and are aiming for a third.
Along with her fight to reduce the demand for drugs in the Airmen of the 433rd AW, she volunteers her time at local schools to talk about drug awareness.
Sergeant Garcia hopes the kids she meets take one message with them. “If someone comes to you and asks if you want to try this – say NO – say no to drugs.”
No one really fights as hard as those whose heart is engaged in the battle.
For her it is also a personal battle. Sergeant Garcia is currently a single mom of a teen. She believes information and awareness are important for her son. Both are weapons that arm and prepare him to repel temptations and peer pressure.
“I remember when I was a kid I was offered drugs,” said Sergeant Garcia. “My son is 14 – he might experience something like that so I try to bring that to the front any time I can.”
Sergeant Garcia said the reason she really loves the program is the hope that what she does might stop someone from taking a step towards drug use.
The recognition first was at the command level and then Sergeant Garcia competed at a national level. The national prize includes a trip to Washington D.C. for the award ceremony and a $2,500 cash prize. She had no idea there was a cash award.
“I thought it was just an award or a plaque,” she said. “I’ll buy a monument headstone for my mother and the rest use for outings and dinners with my son and fiancé.”
There are about 800 tests to administer this fiscal year. With the year already more than half over, the record of zero non-testable samples still holds.
For Sergeant Garcia, the battle is clear: Keep training, keep testing and keep winning the war on drugs, one battlefront at a time.