eagle709

Late answer, but he is some kind of clergyman in Boise.

Thank you for your response. I agree with you. Since I don't even know who I'm writing to I'd have to say "get over it" is too harsh and I apologize. I failed to mention that I and all my peers were trashed also. I think in my case I was raised by a very strong Dad who made more of an impression on me than VPW, which probably made it easier to leave. By the way , I wasn't a gun toting cowboy on a daily basis, it was just once, and Chris Geer set me up with it, and I didn't know how TWI abused women until after I left the thing. I actually didn't know that anywhere near the amount went on as I am finding out now. Once again, I apologize, and thank you for your response. Eagle

You're right and I won't. Just thought I'd give my opinion. Who knows we might have been friends at one time. Eagle

I've read this site, and made a few posts in the last couple of months, and in my meager opinion, y'all just don't want to get over it. Do you have lives? It's been 23 years since I left the ministry. Please don't tell me I didn't know what was going on. I lived with J.P. at Emporia and packed a gun doing "bless patrol". Time to move on kids. Eagle

Back to the topic "Does anyone grow old"? It is very sad to watch our peers die, but in 1974, when I took the class, the average age of the ministry was 19. We were invincible, young, dumb, and full of whatever. Pretty easy to lead around. After watching a few friends die, it was in 1986 when our new limb leader explained that one of our wow vets died, because he was out of fellowship and deserved to. No more waferland for me. I got in his face big time and it was GOOD BYE. My friend was fishing in ID and someone was target shooting in the area. The bullet was deflected by a tree and hit my friend between the eyes. He deserved to die? The list of those who have passed, (on this website), shocked me when I first saw it a couple of months ago, but, now that I'm 54 and have lost good friends, school mates, my Dad, Uncles, Aunts, and three people that I lived with, I believe the last enemy to be destoyed is death. I also hope for the return of Jesus Christ. Those are two things that are pretty clear in the Bible, you don't even need an interpreter. I certainly don't claim to understand life and death, but, it was defintely easier for me to pull the plug on on my Dad, hoping for the return. I'm sure you all have had similar experiences. Eagle

It was worth sorting through all this just to sse the picture. Personally I've got a set of 1974 PFAL books I'll sell for 4500.00 Eagle

Forget the past and enjoy the now. I still couldn't handle a church though. Eagle

I can agree with your logic, but when the same people that were trashing us, were now running the splinter groups, I didn't think I needed to find out if they had changed.

We changed that to: I have no friends because of the word. (the way)

That's why it was in "quotation marks" We have indoor plumbing at our house. But, no wow burgers.

I was in Shreveport LA. Quite a culture shock for someone from a small town in IA Weren't you drafted into the WOW vet program? I wound up being a small branch cooridnator for 3 active WOW families. (Definitely not my idea) That was in the early 80's. The program had went down bad. Those people didn't (or were not allowed) to think for themselves. When they had issues they imediately called their leadership to fix things. I remember telling an interim corps WOW he could have got the limb leaders phone # and stayed in Emporia. We were allowed to mess up everything and then deal with it. Trust me, we were good at messing things up! I didn't take the class until 74, and I thought the fun was over by 79.

Thanks, I had to show this to my wife. (she evidently didn't have anything else to do, so she went twice). I can't say much though, I left the 10th corpse, and was dumb enough to go back in the 16th after I married her. We left it about the same month I left the 10th. We walked from "TWI" in 86 and haven't had much contact since, so this is a treat.

I'm new here as of yesterday. WOW success or not? This forum has made me laugh, cry, and I even saw myself returning "home" on the ROA 76 video. I'd say I pretty much agree with all of you. (covered my butt well.) I probably heard only what I wanted to, but when I went WOW in 75 I thought all we had to do was return in 76 to be a success. I left the field for a week but returned for the ROA. Success!!! We learned how to live on little or nothing, share our cigs with wow's that didn't work, drink lot's of coffee, eat free samples at the grocery store, share your vehicle with your coordinator, give all your money to your cooridnator, hate your cooridnator, forgive your cooridnator, My wow brother, who is now deceased likened us to the M.A.S.H. TV show. He was Hawkeye, I was Trapper and our cooridnator was Major Burns. We even had a wow sister with over active hormones we referred to as Hotlips. Some parts sucked, but I'd call it a success.