AHS Alumnus Tony Green is confined to a wheelchair as the result of a 1994 car wreck in which he got behind the wheel after drinking.

Former AHS student shares tragic story

When Alleghany native Tony Green was a senior at Alleghany High School in 1993, he had goals of having a long-term career in the U.S. Navy. One tragic night the following year changed it all.

Green was in the Navy two months after graduation. On June 16, 1994, he was a mere four days from going on his first six-month cruise deployment around South Africa and around the southern tip of South America. During the day, he learned upon his return, Green would take part in Officers Candidate School (OCS).

During an April 15 assembly at Alleghany High School, Green told students, "Me and some my friends thought that we would go to a house off base and, well, let's just say (we wanted) to celebrate the occasion. We sat and we drank and we told stories…and when the celebration's over with, there were a few of us, including myself, that had no business behind the wheel of a vehicle. One of them even tried to get me to spend the night with him and go to work out on the base the next day. Of course, alcohol impairs your judgment; it impairs your thought process."

At the time, Green remembers thinking he was bulletproof and that after drinking and getting behind the wheel, that he would make it safely back to base, wake the following morning in his bed and later begin packing his bags for his first deployment.