{"id":59270,"date":"2017-04-08T13:56:51","date_gmt":"2017-04-08T13:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/04\/08\/army-vet-journeys-from-living-under-a-bridge-to-running-the-boston-marathon\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:49:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:49:54","slug":"army-vet-journeys-from-living-under-a-bridge-to-running-the-boston-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/off-duty\/2017\/04\/08\/army-vet-journeys-from-living-under-a-bridge-to-running-the-boston-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Army vet journeys from living under a bridge to running the Boston Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>BOSTON \u2014 Whether solo, jogging in a crowd, or lost in the sensation of music thumping through his headphones, Danny Dwyer sees his thorny past, thankful present and unwritten future blend to form the perfect sanctuary.<br\/><br\/>This is how he trains for this year&#8217;s Boston Marathon.<br\/><br\/>Each step is one away from battles with drug addiction that began when he was 8 years old. It&#8217;s a struggle that&#8217;s swallowed up a coveted job with the Boston Police Department and an engagement. For four years, he lived under a bridge. Now, he&#8217;s rededicated his life to helping others who struggle with substance abuse.<br\/><br\/><br\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"dwyer 2\" data-alignment=\"center\" data-object-id=\"0000015b-4dd6-d88a-a7ff-cdd6043f0000\" data-type=\"image\" src=\"http:\/\/snagfilms-a.akamaihd.net\/2d\/bd\/25c9c2aa4767b9a75ebe1fea8420\/dwyer-2.jpg\"\/><figcaption> <span>In this March 18, 2017 photo, Danny Dwyer walks under the bridge where he used to sleep during the period in his life when he was homeless in Boston. <\/span><\/figcaption><figcaption> <span>Photo Credit: Michael Dwyer\/AP<\/span><\/figcaption><br\/>&#8220;I can give you many low points. That&#8217;s the thing about addiction,&#8221; Dwyer says. &#8220;If you don&#8217;t do something about it, the low point you&#8217;ve reached \u2014 it&#8217;ll go lower.&#8221;<br\/><br\/>Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Dwyer was the youngest of three children. His sister, Barbara, was seven years older and his brother, Billy, was five years older.<br\/><br\/>His parents divorced when he was about 6, and his mother, Frances, moved with Danny and Billy to Los Angeles.<br\/><br\/>While she worked several jobs over next two years, her sons became latchkey kids. They often hung out with older kids near their home in a poorer area of town. Those kids introduced him to marijuana.<br\/><br\/>&#8220;It&#8217;s pretty wild when you think about it,&#8221; Dwyer said. &#8220;To be out until 1 o&#8217;clock in the morning, skateboarding on a school night, smoking marijuana. To then being in second grade the next day practicing penmanship.&#8221;<br\/><br\/>Four years later they returned to Massachusetts, but alcohol, marijuana and cocaine stayed part of Dwyer&#8217;s life.<br\/><br\/>His mother sent him to live with his father, William, and he attended an all-boys Catholic high school where he was exposed to people working toward college.<br\/><br\/><br\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"dwyer 3\" data-alignment=\"center\" data-object-id=\"0000015b-4dd7-d7a0-a3df-6dd782fb0000\" data-type=\"image\" src=\"http:\/\/snagfilms-a.akamaihd.net\/2c\/fd\/cb987a4d40a59933bb2c82a6b427\/dwyer-3.jpg\"\/><figcaption> <span>In this March 18, 2017 photo, Danny Dwyer, center, takes part in a training run with with fellow charity runners in Boston.<\/span><\/figcaption><figcaption> <span>Photo Credit: Michael Dwyer\/AP<\/span><\/figcaption><br\/>Though he was still smoking pot and drinking, he entered the Air Force National Guard out of high school.<br\/><br\/>He struggled on and off for a few years, but had completely put everything down by 1988 when he went active-duty Army. It offered him a combat medic position and he was assigned to the prestigious 10th Mountain Division in Ft. Drum, New York.<br\/><br\/>No one suspected anything about his past drug use.<br\/><br\/>&#8220;They ask you. You say no,&#8221; Dwyer said. &#8220;You do what you have to do.&#8221;<br\/><br\/>Out of the Army and still sober in 1996, he spent three years working for the Suffolk County Sheriff&#8217;s Department before being called by the Boston Police Academy.<br\/><br\/>During a training session he partially tore his ACL and was put on painkillers. Still, he graduated at the top of his class for physical fitness.<br\/><br\/>Then everything changed.<br\/><br\/>Assigned to the plain-clothes division even before his probationary year was complete, he injured his knee again chasing a suspect. Unable to walk, he was taken to the hospital and treated with painkillers OxyContin and Percocet.<br\/><br\/>&#8220;I never really recovered from that,&#8221; Dwyer said. &#8220;I wish I could explain what happened. But I got lost in it.&#8221;<br\/><br\/>Eleven years of sobriety were gone.<br\/><br\/>He tried to pull it together, but when he returned to duty withdrawal took hold. He bought painkillers illegally off the street. When pills were too expensive, he turned to heroin.<br\/><br\/><br\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"dwyer 4\" data-alignment=\"center\" data-object-id=\"0000015b-4dd9-d362-a35f-5dff005c0000\" data-type=\"image\" src=\"http:\/\/snagfilms-a.akamaihd.net\/a3\/0e\/03e045df4e4f909947ba012f1ad8\/dwyer-4.jpg\"\/><figcaption> <span>In this March 18, 2017 photo, Danny Dwyer poses under the bridge where he used to sleep during when he was homeless in Boston.<\/span><\/figcaption><figcaption> <span>Photo Credit: Michael Dwyer\/AP<\/span><\/figcaption><br\/>One day in 2001 he wound up buying from a dealer who was under surveillance. He was arrested and fired. He split with his fianc\u00e9, left the house they shared, and started staying in his car.<br\/><br\/>After burning through his money he found himself under the Charlestown Bridge.<br\/><br\/>&#8220;There was a time I thought I&#8217;d lost him. A couple of times,&#8221; his father, William Dwyer recalled. &#8220;When he needed money or got in a jam I&#8217;d support him. But I didn&#8217;t know where he was.&#8221;<br\/><br\/>Once, William found out Danny was at a shelter and brought him things. But interactions like those were few.<br\/><br\/>Dwyer went through numerous detoxes, but &#8220;the shame and guilt, it was horrible,&#8221; he said. Sometimes he was lined up for further treatment. Other times he simply left.<br\/><br\/>A stint at a halfway house finally stuck, and he got sober, becoming a drug and alcohol counselor. After a few more relapses, his first son, Danny Jr. was born in 2006. His second son, Luke was born two years later.<br\/><br\/>&#8220;The one thing I knew is that I needed to try to give these kids the best shot at not going down a path that I went down,&#8221; Dwyer said.<br\/><br\/>Around that time Dwyer began to take up yoga, and he was soon offered a job managing 13 studios.<br\/><br\/>Then, 10 months ago he first got serious about running.<br\/><br\/>He was dealing with a shoulder issue. But he knew surgery would mean doctors prescribing narcotics, so he initially used yoga as a less-evasive solution.<br\/><br\/>But the shoulder issue persisted.<br\/><br\/>He had surgery, and was supposed to be in a sling six weeks. He took it off after just three days and flushed his medication down the toilet.<br\/><br\/>Within five days he was running, staples and all still in his shoulder.<br\/><br\/>He started running 5k races, then a half-marathon. Through his volunteering connections at recovery programs, he will run the Boston Marathon for a homeless shelter, Lazarus House, and\u00a0accepted its $10,000 fundraising commitment.<br\/><br\/>His father said helping is like therapy for him. &#8220;He&#8217;s getting a lot of help and he&#8217;s giving a lot of help,&#8221; William Dwyer said.<br\/><br\/>Danny has also started Frontline Yoga, aimed at more face-to-face interaction with the homeless community. One way it does that is by passing out yoga mats and holding free yoga sessions. Dwyer&#8217;s sons often come with him, bridging the gap between his past and present.<br\/><br\/>&#8220;It&#8217;ll be pieces of my life that when they&#8217;re older &#8230; they&#8217;ll have something to look at,&#8221; Dwyer said. &#8220;They&#8217;ll know that there is a way out and their dad made it out.&#8221;<br\/><br\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each step in his training is one step away from battles with drug addiction that began when he was 8 years old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":97435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":17,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1223],"class_list":["post-59270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-off-duty"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"ERYSCLHYFVHSDKOYYFZ2J6Y26E","arc_canonical_url":"\/off-duty\/2017\/04\/08\/army-vet-journeys-from-living-under-a-bridge-to-running-the-boston-marathon\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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