Chuck Ondo will be forever grateful for a second chance at life. The Marine Corps veteran and former Pennsylvania state trooper developed a cocaine addiction from the stress and trauma in his work and life. In 1999 he ended up in prison after being convicted of tampering with evidence.
The West Mifflin native served 13 months of his sentence, and after he was released on parole he fought depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, illnesses that led him to become an alcoholic and left him on the brink of homelessness.
What saved him? First help from the VA Veterans Recovery Center and then Pittsburgh’s Veterans Leadership Program, which led him to safe and affordable housing, gave him new clothes, and helped him update his barber’s license and purchase barber tools to start over.
Today, he owns a barbershop, Valor Men’s Grooming in Ross, and he serves others with gratitude. He is the co-founder and president of Semper Fi Mission, a nearly year-old nonprofit organization he started at his church with Kenneth Aquiline. Among other outreach activities, and with assistance from volunteers, Ondo offers Prayercuts, free haircuts at First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Downtown. That started in August, and to date the nonprofit has offered three sessions. The next one is scheduled there for 1 to 4 p.m. Nov. 18.
Ondo, 59, received $10,000 from Citizens Bank from its Small Business Community Champion program, a one-time grant, and he used some of it for attorney fees to obtain a nonprofit 501(c)(3) designation for Semper Fi Mission. Remaining funds cover the free food available to Prayercuts attendees.
He said the grant was the catalyst to get the mission up and running. He had started Revival Today Veterans Brigade through his church, Revival Today, in Moon, and several months before he opened his barbershop in June 2022.
He’s the first person in his family to become a barber, although he has nieces and aunts who were or are hair stylists. After his prison release, he started to rebuild his life in the Philadelphia area, where he had worked as a state police officer, undercover detective and sniper with the force’s Special Emergency Response Team.
That move into law enforcement followed six years as a Marine Corps ammunition technician, time spent in a number of U.S. bases and in Okinawa. His addiction started during his undercover work with the Philadelphia mob when he witnessed shootings and a murder, endured being robbed at gunpoint, and learned one of his informants had been murdered.
After 13 months in prison, including a stint at Somerset State Correctional Facility, he was released on parole for the rest of his two- to four-year sentence. After a time working in the asphalt business, he obtained his barber’s license in 2009. In 2015 he returned to Western Pennsylvania to help care for his father, a World War II veteran, and worked for others’ barbershops.
He told KDKA-TV back in 2022 that he battled addiction and alcoholism for about 15 years. “I would just binge drink to the point I would black out, wake up and do it again. I finally reached a point that I knew it was going to take my life if I didn’t get help.”
That recovery led him to opening his own one-chair shop in My Salon Suites on McKnight Road. Valor Men’s Grooming offers discounted prices to active-duty military, veterans, police and first responders. The shop’s entire back “Heroes’ Wall” is dedicated to all customers who have served.
He works at the shop – and Ondo selected the location to be close to Downtown despite now living in Jefferson Hills – from noon to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. That means he has Mondays for his nonprofit work and meetings as well as in the mornings before he starts seeing clients.
Semper Fi offers a prison ministry, weekly visits to the Allegheny County Jail’s veterans pod, where he and Aquiline offer Bibles, offer advice and counsel; community outreach, including a monthly meal in the North Side park near Allegheny General Hospital and street outreach twice a month; and mentorship, aimed at veterans who are homeless and struggling with addiction and their mental health.
Ondo believes his efforts are a natural segue born out of his understanding of what it means to be struggling with addiction and being incarcerated.
He became connected to First Presbyterian Church through one its projects, Outreached Arms, led by Rob Rudy, who is on Semper Fi Mission’s board of directors. He also visits Cornerstone Residence Recovery Home in Clairton, which only serves veterans, and he has partnered with the Onala Recovery Center, located on the South Side.
He spreads the word about all of this by handing out flyers Downtown and at the VA facility in Aspinwall and through social media, including Semper Fi Mission’s Facebook page.
In October he and volunteer barbers served 63 people while also offering them food, free clothing and hygiene products. For next week’s session, he will be assisted by nine volunteer barbers.
He and his wife, Laura, live in Jefferson Hills. His 30-year-old son and 22-year-old daughter from his first marriage live in the Philadelphia suburbs; a first grandchild will arrive this spring.
As Ondo reviews how far he’s come since last December with Semper Fi Mission, he believes the most impactful part is the prison ministry. A week ago he made his 53rd visit there along with others connected to his organization.
“We have reached out to 345 men who have been impacted and mentored through jail, taken them to church, helped them in some way or another in our mentorship program. Dozens of others in our other events,” he said. “It’s gaining a lot of synergy, and it’s interesting.”
With the legal paperwork in place, the organization can soon start a concerted effort toward fundraising in addition to a Go Fund Me page and personal contributions he and Aquiline have made to get it up and running.
Citizens selected Semper Fi Mission as one of five Small Business Community Champion Awards given to veteran-owned businesses among all of its 2024 grants. Since 2018, the program has awarded more than $1.5 million to 142 small businesses, including several companies in Western Pennsylvania, according to a bank public relations official.
Pittsburgh Market President Mark Rendulic said Citizens has a longstanding commitment to supporting the nation’s veterans, and the bank featured Ondo in a short video. “Here in Pittsburgh, we were delighted to recognize Chuck Ondo of Valor Men’s Grooming and the Semper Fi Mission. Chuck’s story exemplifies the value of perseverance, and we are proud to play a small part in supporting his efforts to uplift his neighbors and fellow former servicemembers one haircut at a time.”
Ondo’s had great news from his church, which has offered to financially support his efforts as a ministry within it, too. And this month, he will be ordained.
“I will be Trooper Cpl. Barber Pastor Chuck,” he said.
Helen is a copy editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but she's currently on strike. Contact her at hfallon@unionprogress.com.