My Daughter Named Her Son After Me and It's Not Because I'm a Good Dad - AA Speaker - Frank J.
Podcast: Sober Sunrise - AA Speaker PodcastPublished On: Tue Mar 24 2026
Description: Frank J. went from Marine sniper to homeless with everything he owned in a cardboard box in a stolen car — and 13 months without a drink, with no meetings, he was choking strangers and throwing eggs across grocery stores. AA didn't make him a different person. It taught him to stop acting like the one he was. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️ Sober-Sunrise.com Frank grew up in small-town Illinois, won nine varsity letters, quit high school two weeks before graduation out of pure fear, and joined the Marines at 17. He became a morning drinker before he turned 18, did two tours in Vietnam as a sniper running on 151-proof rum, and came home so broken he pulled a gun on his wife while his daughter stood between his legs begging him to stop. After losing everything — the police career, the real estate money, the wives, the kids — he ended up homeless and dying of cirrhosis. They strapped him to a hospital bed for ten days, then dropped him at an AA meeting. But the real story is what happened at 13 months without a drink and no program: a nervous breakdown, a man choked over a partition, and eggs launched across a grocery store. An old-timer told him drinking wasn't his problem anymore — living was. Today his three daughters have degrees and careers, one named her son after him, and Frank will tell you straight: it's not because he's a good dad, it's because AA taught him how to be one. Frank J. from Sherman Oaks, CA speaking at the South Coast speaker meeting in Laguna Beach, CA - September 8th 2010 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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