Page 14 - Failed Experiment

A Failed Experiment

4. But this work was done in lieu of military service. The
administration, faculty and staff of AC had every right to make your
life difficult so that it would parallel service in Viet Nam.

I am not contending that AC should have been a comfortable
sinecure for 1-Ws. It should have involved solid work but with
no loss of human dignity. In fact, there was no organized,
consistent approach to the treatment of 1-Ws. Nobody ever stood
up and said that we were going to have to work hard but that
everyone appreciated and respected our dedication. That would
have helped. Instead the mean and base treatment we received
was case by case. This treatment was not a policy but rather the
product of a system called Armstrongism and how it caused
people to behave towards others, especially others who were
below them in the AC hierarchy.

If AC personnel felt that was a patriotic responsibility incumbent
on them to make1-Ws suffer experiences similar to military
personnel at war in Viet Nam, why then were some 1-Ws with
good connections given cushy assignments?

5. But in Viet Nam you could have gotten killed. At Big Sandy, people
just treated you badly.

In my mind at that time, I could have lost my spiritual life if I had
become intransigently bitter at the treatment we received. So not
just physical death but eternal death was at stake. Worse than
Viet Nam.

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