Finding Out Your Child is Autistic

When our son was diagnosed with Autism in June 1988, I was a 25-year-old Army Sergeant on my way to being the next Warrant Officer or Sergeant Major. A short and successful career so far, would soon come to a grinding halt. The fulltime dedication I was giving to the Army was increasingly eroding with appointments away from work and growing concerns at home. My supervisors were very good about letting me go to do the family things, and because my unit had a 24/7 mission, I worked different shifts. This gave me some flexibility to fulfill my obligations and take care of family things. John continued to go a child therapist at the military hospital, but what he needed was simply not available in Germany. It took time for the professionals to gather enough data to justify granting me a compassionate reassignment stateside. The process took more than 6 months, but on March 6th, 1989, we arrived at Fort Meade, Maryland. I remember it so vividly because when we landed at Dulles International Airport it was freezing rain. We'd left a sunny, mild pre-spring day in Germany. I remember the breathing apparatus falling down as we landed, and not knowing if we were going to crash due to runway conditions. We were stranded at the airport for several hours, buses or taxis were, for the most part, not running. Finally one brave bus driver took us into DC, so we could possibly link up with another bus. He dropped us off on 16th Street, with no shelter.

There we were, my wife, two small boys ages 1 & 3, 8 pieces of luggage, and me in my full dress uniform on a deserted downtown DC street, in the freezing rain. I remember we were near a hotel, but it was not a contingent I'd planned for. I didn't have cash for that, and we didn't have credit cards. Oddly, another soldier had made the trip from Dulles and was waiting with us. What few vehicles went by, were not stopping. A few taxis did stop, but wanted far more than we could scrape together. Finally, after more than 3 hours, one very kind taxi driver came to our rescue. I gave him all I had in cash, $43.00, and the other guy gave him some money; off to Fort Meade we went in the freezing rain, and traffic. I can't honestly tell you much about the ride, except I held on to my kids and wife, and prayed.

We finally made it to Fort Meade, and found the Guest House at 11:25PM. The first leg of a long road was finished, and we settled in for another day.

John Crawford is the father of 19 year old John (IV) who is autistic.