In 2008, Joe and three comrades entered a heavily armored truck. They planned to drive on the road right next to the river until they reached their destination. Then, suddenly, they realized they weren't driving on the road anymore.
Their truck fell into a deep river and sank. Joe and his friends didn't think they would make it out alive.
Struggling
"The water starts rising and coming up to my head, I'm having trouble getting my seat belt off," Joe recalls.
Fortunately, one of his friends was nearby. He helped him remove his seatbelt, but they both realized they were facing a much bigger problem. Their truck was completely underwater.
In Danger
“The hydraulics system is knocked out, and we are fighting for these doors and fighting for these doors,” Joe remembers.
“You can’t see the water rising because it’s pitch black. You can feel the water rising. Pretty soon, the water comes up to a point where it is up to our chin. Then I hear a gurgling sound.”
Gas Bottles
Joe and his friends then realized that the gas bottles were leaking inside the truck. The bottles had been damaged when the vehicle fell into the river.
This meant that the air they were breathing was contaminated with gas. Joe explained how he felt when the air and gas entered his lungs.“I’d see these things that weren’t there, and I was hallucinating,”
Rescued
"I thought I had died," he recalls. The time was passing very slowly.
Finally, hours later, a team found Joe and rescued him from the sunken vehicle. Joe remembers seeing a group of men dressed in military uniform carrying him onto the road. That's when he made the biggest mistake of his life.
Bodies
Joe looked back at the car and saw three bodies. "And I look to my left, and there are three people laying there," he recalls.
Joe lost his three brothers that day, something he would never fully recover from. He soon started suffering from flashbacks and anxiety.
Anxiety Attacks
Joe would remember the incident from anything as small as the smell of fuel or river. This would trigger nightmares and anxiety attacks.
Joe wanted to forget about that day and never talk about it again. However, it was easier said than done.
A Big Change
Joe knew that living a normal life back home after his service would be practically impossible. He couldn't talk to anyone about this because no one understood what he was going through.
Soon after arriving home, he started drinking heavily and found that it really helped with his PTSD.
Drinking His Pain Away
"I wouldn't drink because I liked the taste of beer, it was when I was angry or if I was hurting," Joe recalls.
This soon started to affect his life as he would always be under the influence. One day, Joe was pulled over while driving drunk.
Facing The Consequences
He went before the judge numerous times and had to submit urine tests to prove that he was sober after each occasion. However, he still wouldn't give up drinking and even faked one of his tests.
He had lied to the judge and two weeks later admitted to his falsified test.
Not Enough
He apologized to the judge and promised to never do it again. However, a simple 'sorry' wasn't going to be enough.
The judge, Lou Olivier, wanted to hold Joe accountable for his actions, and soon he was sentenced to a night in prison.
Fellow Veteran
What Joe didn't know at the time was that judge Lou was also an army veteran. So if anyone, it would be him that understood what he was going through and helped him, but there was, putting him in jail instead.
On the day that Joe was supposed to go to jail, the judge decided to meet him there and have a chat with him.
Under Distress
“When he showed up, I could tell visibly he was under distress,” Lou recalls.
“He was shaking. He was trembling. He was sweaty.” And this was before he even entered the jail. How would he feel after spending 12 hours in a dark jail cell alone?
In The Jail Cell
Joe entered the jail cell and stretched his arms so he could touch the walls around him. They were cold and very dirty.
He closed his eyes and tried to remain calm. Suddenly he felt like he was in the truck again, surrounded by river water and contaminated gas.
Flashbacks
The flashback wouldn't go away. "I put my hands over my head and put my head down," Joe recalls. He was trying to imagine that he was somewhere else, but it was impossible.
Cold sweat formed all over his body, and his hands started to shake. “It just kind of echoed in my head, I was so nervous,” he said.
It Didn't Stop
Joe began to have more flashbacks of the accident and his friends trapped inside the sunken car.
“In the truck, I didn’t know I would get out of there,” Joe said. “I only had one option that night, and it wasn’t a good option. In the cell, I reflected on that.”
Unexpected Visitor
Suddenly, the cell door opened in front of him, waking Joe up from his living nightmare. He looked up at the person standing in front of him, praying that his time in the cell was over.
It was judge Lou. He gave Joe a warm smile, and Joe smiled back at him.
Judge Lou Olivera
"Standing right there is Judge Lou Olivera with a big smile," Joe recalls.
“And I kind of smiled, too, because he was holding a tray of food. He comes in, and he sits on the bed. ‘Scoot over.’” Joe remembers the judge saying.
"This Is Serious"
“They closed the door and locked it,” Joe recalled. “I said, ‘This is serious.’ He had the ability to get out, but they locked the door.”
Joe asked Lou: “Judge, are you afraid?” His response left him at a loss for words.
Cellmate
For Lou, this was a last-minute decision. He had never spent a night in jail before. However, seeing how stressed Joe looked, he knew he needed to help him somehow.
“I called up my wife,” Lou recalls. “I said, ‘Honey, I’m not coming home for dinner.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘Well, I’m going to jail.’” As you can probably imagine, his wife was stunned.
Not Alone
Lou's presence made Joe feel better immediately. "It automatically brought me back to being a person," Joe said.
“I was overwhelmed. I really wanted to cry. And I didn’t feel alone.”
Talks
Sitting next to eachother in the jail cell, Joe and Lou ate some food and talked about their lives, jobs, hobbies, and of course, war.
At about 12 AM, the judge put his mat on the floor and said he was going to sleep.
"I Got It"
“I said, ‘Judge, if anything, please sleep in the bunk. Let me take the ground,’” Joe said, but the judge insisted,“‘I got it.’” They chatted for a little bit before going to sleep.
“Finally, Joe’s breathing got heavier, and he got quieter, and then he started to snore,” Lou said.
Good Man
“That was when I felt good because I knew Joe would be OK.” The judge drove Joe home the next morning before going to the courthouse.
“Joe was a good soldier, and he’s a good man,” Lou said. “I wanted him to know I had his back. I didn’t want him to do this alone.”
He Was In Shock
“He looked at me like I was crazy,” the judge said. “He gave me the stinkeye and said, ‘I don’t know what you’re thinking, son. I can’t lock up a judge.’ ”
“I’m a judge, and I’ve seen evil,” he continued.
Offering Help
“But I see the humanity in people. Joe is a good man. Helping him helped me. I wanted him to know he isn’t alone.”
“When I walked out of the cell, it felt like a clean slate,” Joe recalled.
First Time
“I was talking to one of the jailers. I’m like, ‘Have you ever seen that?’ He said, ‘No. Don’t disappoint him.’”
The hardest part of coping with PTSD for Joe has always been trusting people. He felt like he couldn't trust anyone anymore.
Different Mindset
Lou changed that for him. Joe feels like he can trust him now after what he did for him.
“Just his presence alone shifted my whole mindset. When he walked in, that kind of brought the walls down and built this confidence in me, of trust in people," he said.