From Rock Bottom in the Brig to Dan 2.0: A Marine Colonel’s Brutally Honest Guide to Beating Three Addictions at Once
He walked out of military prison on October 18, 2019, wearing his Colonel’s uniform, singing “Free at Last” at the top of his lungs.
Less than an hour later he was drinking whiskey straight from the bottle his lawyer’s husband had just handed him.
That’s Dan Wilson – Mustang Colonel, combat veteran of Desert Storm and two tours in Iraq, survivor of Africa’s crocodiles and black mambas, and the most senior Colonel in the Marine Corps on the day he retired.
He had just survived nearly three years behind bars on a conviction the appellate court later threw out “with prejudice” for factual and legal insufficiency. He had lost everything except his family and his pride.
And the first thing he did with his freedom was pick up a drink.
If you think that’s rock bottom, wait until you read what came next.
In Dan 2.0 – Recovering from my addictions, Dan lays it all out with the same no-BS, zero-self-pity voice that made Out of Africa and Into the Corps impossible to put down.
He doesn’t sugar-coat it:
• Alcohol became his Higher Power after the false accusation, the raids, the pre-trial confinement, the court-martial, the brig.
• Copenhagen dip was his constant companion in Fallujah, in the Pentagon, in the prison smuggling operation that landed him in solitary.
• Caffeine turned him into an asshole who couldn’t stop firing off angry emails and posts.
He quit them one at a time, in order of deadliness: alcohol first, then nicotine, then caffeine.
And he did it the only way that actually worked for him: surrendering to a Higher Power and working the program of Alcoholics Anonymous like his life depended on it (because it did).
This is not a “how I white-knuckled it with Marine discipline” story.
It’s a “I finally admitted I was powerless and asked God for help” story.
You’ll read about:
• The exact morning prayer he still says on his knees every single day (it’s short, it’s powerful, and it works).
• The daily routine that replaced whiskey, dip, and coffee with endorphins, gratitude, and real peace.
• The AA pearls of wisdom he collected like combat ribbons (“Worry is an emotional indulgence,” “Feelings aren’t facts,” “If nothing changes, nothing changes”).
• How he lost 117 pounds, wrote five books in retirement, started playing pickleball like a warrior, and now lives a life “beyond my wildest dreams.”
Most importantly, you’ll feel the hope on every page.
Dan doesn’t preach. He just tells the truth:
“I came for my drinking and stayed for my thinking.”
“Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic – just like once a Marine, always a Marine.”
“The miracle is buried in simplicity.”
If you, or someone you love, is wrestling with alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, or the feeling that “I should be able to handle this on my own,” this book is the no-nonsense, battle-tested map you’ve been looking for.
It’s raw.
It’s funny in places.
It’s hopeful as hell.
And it’s written by a man who has stared down terrorists, false accusations, prison bars, and his own worst impulses – and come out the other side sober, grateful, and free.
Dan 2.0 is available now on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook (narrated by the man himself – you want to hear him tell these stories).
Buy it.
Read it.
Then pass it to someone who needs it.
Because if a hard-charging, battle-scarred Marine Colonel can go from whiskey river to living beyond his wildest dreams…
so can you.
Semper Fi, Colonel.
And thank you for writing the book that so many of us didn’t know we needed.
(And yes – this pairs perfectly with Out of Africa and Into the Corps. Same voice, same honesty, same man – just different chapters of an absolutely epic life.)
A 110 PERCENT MENTALITY-THE COLONEL'S CORNER 