by uninformed 46 Replies latest forum suggestions
Uninformed,
I think you and people who have been through the mill like you have "for the sake of the truth™" deserve a lot more attention (and the net is just the place to get it).
If you haven't already done, may I sugest you have your stories recorded. If you have writen any up already I'd love to read them.
cheers, unclebruce
I was sentenced to what they called an "indeterminate" sentence under the Youth Correction Act and sent to the Seagoville Federal Correctional Institution in Seagoville, Texas.
Had I been legally an adult my maximum sentence would have been 5 years. However, under the YCA my sentence was 6 years maximum.
I was sentenced on October 23, 1967.
I was paroled in 1969.
At one time there were about 30 of the brothers in with me.
We had 5 meetings a week.
I received only one visit from my best friend and no visits from any brother or sister in my congregation the whole time I was there.
My JW girlfriend came to see me for several months and then vanished. The brothers in the local congregation were asking her out while I was away.
My congregation did not send one single letter of support the entire time I was serving my sentence.
That's how you can tell you are in the True Religion; by the love among the brothers and sisters.
T.
Unc,
You are one of the funniest and "politest" people that I like to follow on the post trail.
Thanks for the encouragement, maybe someday soon I will write some history that will really bore you.
u
hi, it's interesting you mention vietnam, just been watching the film Platoon on BBC. I have little knowledge of the Vietnam war or the comunism period in history. It's a hole in my knowledge if anyone cares to enlighten an English guy.
Terry,
I should know you but probably don't.
I went in in October of 66 and got out in 68.
I know one brother in Seagoville, a Roger Carroll. We later served in Gladewater, Texas at the same time.
I hear your story. I don't know if I ever got one letter from dozens that I wrote. I just assumed that the friends were too busy.
I lost my engaged girl too.
But I did a lot better anyway after I got out.
Do you still live in Texas?
Good to hear from you, pm me if you want to. Will supply any info you want.
u
Terry,I should know you but probably don't.
I went in in October of 66 and got out in 68.
I know one brother in Seagoville, a Roger Carroll. We later served in Gladewater, Texas at the same time.
I hear your story. I don't know if I ever got one letter from dozens that I wrote. I just assumed that the friends were too busy.
I lost my engaged girl too.
But I did a lot better anyway after I got out.
Do you still live in Texas?
Good to hear from you, pm me if you want to. Will supply any info you want.
u
All the brothers inside Seagoville got to know each other quite well. The name Roger Carroll doesn't ring a bell. Did you say he was in Seagoville the same time as I was???
I'd love to talk to ANY of the guys I was in with. ANY of them.
T.
Thanks for the encouragement, maybe someday soon I will write some history that will really bore you
That's OK, likewise. I asure you I won't be bored. This is bigger than both of us. I knew a few who spent time in Yatala and Adelaide jails and and Cadel "training camp" South Australia During WW11. I pioneered with a few brothers who served time during vietnam in Yatala Jail SA and Port Moresby Army Camp PNG. and afterward went into missionary service in the pacific.
All sorts of things you probably don't think are that significant really are - what was the food like? did you get a tobacco ration? a chocolate ration? etc... I remmember a brother who spent tiome in Yatala during WWII said they accepted the tobacco ration and swaped it for stuff. I think you've got a great story to tell bro. and I love to interview you. Get it down you aren't getting any younger lol. I really think this is important. You'd leave us all a great legacy (oops I know your not that old but you know what I mean).
Your story about the handed down locker is very interesting and just the kind of detail memory that makes your story real and interesting. In the late 60's I knew a country brother whose couch was full of watchtower and awakw! mags. We used to joke that when "they" came to arrest us we would ask if we could take the couch to prison with us. It's funny but I think back then, with 1975 looming, we believed (officially or otherwise?) that we would all be rounded up locked away during the 'great tribulation™'.
warm regards, unclebruce
Any out there with an mp3 recorder - get arround to u's house and don't leave till his head's well and truly squeezed out and someonelse get to terry's place too for christ's sake.
The Watchtower Society took a chunk of your lives guys at least give us something to kick back with.
What about you doc? Will you be grabbing a tin hat and a gun when amnesia invades?
No I wanted to join the Navy (and dance with Cher on the deck of an aircraft carrier) but the Elders caught me the evening before my interview. They talked me out of it then made me go on FS the next morning so that I wouldn't sneak off to the recruitment centre and they checked to make sure i was out.
I have mixed feelings about military service now, I've found myself crying in the war memorial in Hyde park, Sydney Today I don't have much time for glory hounds with guns, my idea of a war hero is someone like Simpson http://www.anzachouse.com/simpson.shtml Do yourselves all a great big favor and read up on this bloke then go over to here and sign up http://www.anzacs.net/Simpson.htm
BTW Simpson was English (not sure if it says that in your links). Furphy'd unclebruce.
Army Life: One minute you're on top ..next you're a blithering idiot with underpants on yer head and pencils up yer nostrils
This is one of the most interesting threads I’ve read. I remember a long time ago reading Terry’s profile story. I printed it off and read it on a train journey. Its poignancy moved me very much, and like most people would, I tried to put myself in his place. I couldn’t begin to of course, but the mixture of feelings I had I still remember. Questions I felt like asking Terry was whether he would’ve preferred going to Vietnam, and if he’s a fatalist, but I felt that he must have tired of answering such pale questions. I can only implore anyone reading this to read Terry’s story. The courage of an individual set against the cowardice of an evil organisation. Uncle B is right, these guys do deserve to be heard, and some.
Occasionally a poster here will ask us “to get over it and move on”. No thanks. Accuse me of hyperbole but this is a war; a guerrilla war against an evil empire which seeks to ruin lives and suck people dry. What an irony, that guys who refused the draft for the sake of the Watchtower are now so actively involved in a whole new fight.
