Tampa “ideal St Hill size” org — the model, the org that raised the bar — has put out a new video.
This org is constantly touted as THE best Class V org on earth.
Of course, it should be. It is propped up by Flag. Many of it’s staff are children of scientologists that live in the area or scientologists trying to be eligible for OT VII but they don’t have a lot of money to give to the IAS so they “contr9ibute” this way.
Tampa is also where Flag sends all the people it refuses for service. Anyone with a medical condition or dubious history. Nobody tells them they will not be eligible for Flag services when they get on the plane from wherever their home is, they find out at the other end and have the option of returning home or going to Tampa to do services until they can get eligible.
This is the landing page to click onto their video.
I wonder what you would be missing out on?
Below is a screen shot from the short video.
Methinks they need a new videographer and editor. What a horrendous “look” this is. Their roof?? (And this is ALL they show…)
Here is the staff waving shot — certainly this IS the biggest Class V org. Most ideal orgs could not get this many people into a shot if they had all their staff AND public.
Note how they are “taking it to the next level.”
Here is the BIG news about the “next level.”
60 Clears and NED Case Comps in 8 months.
This is absolutely more than any other Class V org, probably by a factor of at least 10.
And that is what is so remarkable.
Tampa is the model. The thing that every other scientology org strives to be like. This is the pinnacle of achievement in the world of scientology. Tampa are the New England Patriots, Real Madrid, NY Yankees, The Dream Team and the Norwegian cross country ski team all wrapped into one.
And when you compare them to everything else in scientology, it’s an appropriate analogy.
But then you step outside the bubble of the scientology world and look at this accomplishment from the perspective of “Clearing the Planet.” It does not even rise to the level of pathetic.
60 Clears (give them the benefit of the doubt that they will all be Clear) in 8 months is 90 in a year. Let’s round it to 100 per year for easy calculation.
The CURRENT population of the Tampa Bay area is 3 million (this does not include the area this org is supposed to cover — all the way down to Naples in the South and Tallahassee in the North). With this population remaining steady, it will take a mere 30,000 years to clear Tampa Bay.
But the bad news is that Tampa is growing fast. Last year it added 58,000 new residents. So, in fact Tampa org is going in the hole by 57,900 non-Clears every year. They’re going backwards. Just to keep up with the population growth, they need to open 579 NEW ORGS in Tampa producing the same at the model St Hill size Tampa Org.
Funny, they have not opened a SINGLE new org in the Tampa Bay area since this one opened its doors a few decades ago.
Not that Tampa is unique. The last NEW org in the US was Los Gatos in the 1990’s as I recall. It was a crooked mission run by Joey Alessandrini that was forced to become an org so the IRS could be told the church had taken definitive action to put an end to the financial crimes in the Mission.
Realize that if Tampa is not even 1/600th what is required to just keep up with the population growth, how dismally far short of reality scientology is as a whole.
As far as planetary clearing “becoming a reality”… right along with the flying pigs that are transporting thetans frozen in glycol to distant planets and the hell implant freezing over.
I have to add, someone over at The Bunker knows the fire marshal who inspected the Tampa org, and who got his visit claimed as part of the response to Scientology’s Super Bowl ad; his actual impression of the place was:
“the place smelled of mildew & was full of cobwebs & most of the rooms were dead empty”
So it sounds like even Tampa with all their staff, and quite possibly the busiest local org on the planet, still has an “ideal” building that is more morgue than busy org. Also, all of their fire extinguishers failed inspection, and some were even empty….
That staff picture reminds me of my bank 20 years ago. Standing in line and armed robber came in. Only words were hand’s up. We looked just like that staff picture.
I was in my bank about 20 years ago in Missouri and an armed robber entered. He said “hands up “. We must have looked just like that staff picture.
That screenshot of the Tampa Org waving speaks volumes without saying a word. Their wave reminds me of people trying to signal to hostage negotiators that “we’re okay,but please come save us.” One of the saddest pictures I have seen yet .
Agreed, that screen shot just screams “get me out of this heat I’m wearing a suit and it’s 95 degrees”.
Off topic:
As re our long planned End of Cult Beach Party Celebration, this was tonite’s dinner conversation when I “briefed” (sorry for that word) my Never In guy that at some point I might have to suddenly leave town and fly to California.
Him, casually, focused on his meat loaf and mashed potatoes: Oh, yeah? Why?
Me: Well, there’s going to be an important party and I promised to be there.
Him, chowing down vigorously: Party, huh? Must be important if you’re flying all that way out there.
Me: Yes.
Him, Good friends of yours?
Me: I suppose you could say that.
Him, looking up now. Whose party is it?
Me: The host is OSD.
Him: What’s an OSD?
Me: Its a nickname. Short for “Old Surfer Dude”.
Him: I see. What’s his real name?
Me: I don’t know.
Him, amused: He’s a good friend, and you don’t know his name”
Me: That’s because we’ve never met.
Him, I see. You don’t know the host. Ok, where does he live?
Me: I don’t know. Somewhere is Southern California.
Him: You’ve never met him, don’t know his name, don’t know where he lives, but you’re going to his party?
Me: Right. But it doesn’t matter where he lives because the party’s going to be on the beach.
Him, slight eye roll now: I see. What beach?
Me: Huntington Beach. In Southern California.
Him: Right. Well, when is it? When is the party?
Me: I don’t know.
Him, total eye roll + silence.
Me: That’s because nobody can know yet when it will be. It depends on some other things.
Him, looking away for a moment, sighing a little: OKAY! (Brightly) So who are your friends, the other guests?
Me: I’m not sure, exactly.
Him: You’re “not sure” as in, whether or not they’re coming, or, you’re ‘not sure” as in, who they ARE?
Me: Both.
Him: You don’t know any of the guests? You don’t know these people…?
Me: Right. We’ve never met.
Him, large sigh, otherwise expressionless: Alright, to sum up… you want me to know that…(begins opening fingers of right hand, one by one) there’s going to be a very important party…held on Huntington Beach in Southern California….and neither the host nor any of the guests know when it will occur.. you’ve promised to attend….and, you’ve never met any of the people who may, or, then again, may not, be there….did I get this right?
Me: Yes. Exactly right.
Him, breathing in, nodding vigorously, draining his wineglass, catching the waiter’s eye, signalling him: Excuse me… I think we will have another bottle of….whatever this is…
:))))
I’ll get my passport up to date.
You damn well better!!!
That’s right, Yawn!
Hi Aqua – I like your friend. It’s seems he’s willing to set aside skepticism and take things in stride!
Your story reminds me a bit of an episode I had in scn. After I left scn in LA in 1982 I joined an ex scn-ist support group. We discussed other practices and listened to some channelling tapes. On one of the tapes the entity said he and some other entities (non descript) would sometimes (non specific) gather together somewhere in the ether to discuss how best to impart their knowledge to we humans. After the tape ended we all had some more coffee and tea.
Thanks, Richard. Yes, he’s a nice man, who, as you put it, takes things in stride. Liked your channeling story. Sounds like it was fun. I wish there was an ex-scn support group in my area. There’s so much that’s unexplained. No one really knows (or, let’s say, can prove that he or she knows) what happens after we die. I like the concept of remaining open to new truths or possibilities. Without getting totally enmeshed in the woo 🙂 Balancing the routine with new experiences keep one from getting (as Katharine Hepburn put it) “soggy”. 🙂
I love this, Aquamarine 🙂 So many of us have been in this situation: sharing a genuine bond with people we have never met but who have come to mean a great deal to us, nevertheless. I remember the first time I courageously (and recklessly according to my family) took the train to St. Hill to protest the annual IAS event a few years back. I hadn’t met any of my fellow picketers but after just one weekend we became firm friends and since then we have travelled Europe together, attending ideal org openings, court cases and even just mini vacations (the long weekend on a houseboat in Amsterdam springs to mind) that have nothing to do with Scientology.
This might sound odd or even a little pathetic to an outsider: doesn’t Andrea have her own social group? But I did, and do! I have a really tight-knit group of friends – we’ve been friends for 30+ years and never had a cross word – and a very close family. I travel extensively and my social life is often TOO busy. But the people I have met through protesting Scientology have come to mean the world to me in a very genuine way and I feel so lucky to call them my friends.
Have a fabulous time at the beach party!
Andrea, thanks for sharing this with me. Yes, its crazy how one can feel so close and in kinship with people one has never met. And by the way, as re the beach bash, to be held – whenever – I’m sure you’re invited too!
I’ll be in the Huntington Beach neighborhood this weekend. How do you get invited?
“Most ideal orgs could not get this many people into a shot if they had all their staff AND public”
I think that at most ideal orgs, the staff IS the public to a large extent, once all the part-time volunteers who they claim in staff counts are taken into consideration.
I’ve know of a couple of apparently typical “ideal” orgs outside of Scientology’s main areas in California and Florida, where the number of staff they claim, is about 50% of the active membership, and 25% of all the people in the region that they can muster for major events – getting that many people in a shot would be the best they could do at some “all hands” event like New Years’. I’d guess that at Tampa, with its push to try to get to “St. Hill Size” that the proportion of staff to resident active members is even higher – probably including a good number of gray-haired retirees with time on their hands.
I’m also guessing that it’s out-of-town or foreign visitors who are accounting for most of those “stats” of Clears and NED completions, and that only a small number of them come from the Tampa local field. If I read it right, it’s 60 Clears AND NED completions; however many of the 60 are Clears, presumably half or less, most of them probably leave the Tampa area anyway and go back where they came from.
I never bought into Clearing the Planet. I passed it off as promotion or a utopian dream. Even if I had all my living expenses covered and went at it full time it still would have taken over a year to do all the training and co-audit my way to Clear, whatever that cocept meant to me 40 years ago.*
It’s nighttime and someone is flying a lighted drone nearby but at least not over my house. There goes privacy. I guess I’ll have to buy an attack drone to take it out if it starts flying over my house. Maybe that’s how scn got the beautiful rooftop photo of the Tampa Morg.
* I have to be careful I’m not rewriting my history. I may have been a bit more gung-ho or fanatical than I now think I was – haha
Between working for a living, doing training and other courses, co-auditing and spending a year or two doing mission work it took me seven years to finally “go Dianetic Clear”. About a month or two after that the idiots started jacking up the prices again and I wasn’t going to spend another seven years to “go OT” so I blew. In hindsight, lucky me they gave me a reason to split. lol
Oh come on Mike, that is some world class OT level roof tarring on the Tampa org.
I have been lurking here for a few weeks. I have purchased some of the ex Scientologists books and have found them very informative. I didn’t know much about Scientology (mainly because I didn’t care about it) before Mike and Leah’s documentary series and have to admit I got hooked. To me the most heartbreaking is the abandonment and abuse of helpless children. It’s criminal.
My thought here is, if it was greed and hubris (and an insane leader) that brought about the decision to create this cult, what makes Miscavige think that greed, hubris, and insanity that, in turn, might just bring him down. He can’t put everyone in the rehabilitation center. That little boy flies very close to the sun IMO.
What would stop some of his top executives from putting their heads together and toss him under the bus. They could cash in on what they know about him. (It would be delightful too if they could manage to toss that amoral (JMPO) (I want to say skanky but that would just be rude and an insult to skanks) attorney of his under the bus along with him) If circumstances are keeping them (the top execs) held hostage, change the circumstances. Just use what they have learned from the master. Fair game him?
From what I have read, what initially brought in members was what they found, at first, to be personally helpful. It’s not hard to understand why they were drawn in. Thankfully many were able to break free. Hopefully many more will follow. Praying that families will be reunited.
Peggy L, your comments are right on the money. The underlings in Miscavige’s upper circle are supremely incompetent to not realize their little “leader” is destroying their organization in every ill-conceived notion he brings forth. These underlings include all those pathetic useful idiot celebrities like Beck and Tom Cruise.
David Miscavige is the poster child for why one should NEVER consider joining scientology, as he is an abject failure. If the leader is a fuckup, why would anyone want to join?
All the current members need to do is look at their membership stats. Which way are they going?
There’s a church saying: all things flow from the top down.
Or as my secular dad used to say:
Shit rolls downhill.
Thank you. I don’t think that the people who signed up are bad people. They truly wanted to become better people, and if they continued they truly believed that they were doing a good thing. The wrinkle in all this is that they were following an impossible dream, were set up for failure to continue to extract their money and their time so the top of this pyramid could control them body, mind and soul. It was for their own personal gain of power and money. It is a horrible betrayal. It would be very difficult to overcome, but hopefully the alternative to leave is more appealing than to continue with a failed objective. There are people who are willing to help them recover, help them realize how strong they really are to have survived this injustice.
As for the Celebrity Center, more like a ranch where the prized possessions are housed and pampered to keep them believing that they are supremely special and keep on being helpful with face time and of course lots and lots of blue ribbon cash. How pathetic that people who really could do something to improve the human condition are so full of themselves, so terrified of being insignificant, that they can turn a blind eye to the suffering of the underling cult members or the children of cult members who are sent to work on one of their ranches.
They better hope their barn isn’t built on a sinkhole. I hear Florida has more than its share of those.
As for the crap running downhill, you bettcha 🙂
Tampa Fail is not unexpected. The NFL Buccaneers are a failure as well as the Tampa Bay Rays Baseball team. In truth, Tampa is migrating to the South Shore where most of the new construction is taking place. To the North of the Tampa org, you won’t find many who can afford Scientology prices. The Gasparilla festival honors a pirate and a thief. Ybor City has evolved into nightlife. There is a huge price mismatch when Scientology prices are compared to its environment. South Shore is booming based on a new Amazon plant paying $13/hour. Flag in Clearwater is a picture of Sea Org persons wandering from marble building to marble building. If Scientology truly produced something of value, it would expand. But Hubbard had the same problem. Scientology was designed to suck off capitalism. Now Miscavige has nothing but high priced trash to sell to unwilling capitalists.
Maybe for the Bucs of late. Not so much the Rays. Definitely not the Lightning. There are a lot of people with plenty of disposable income within a 45 min drive from Tampa Org. If u were in LA or Ny or Atlanta or almost any city in the US a 45 min drive for something is no big deal if you want it.
My basis of comparison is my long history with the Patriots. My best friend is an Eagle’s fan. But seriously Scientology is just plain toxic.
Evil, really.
George,
And if the tax exemption went away would the big donors look a little closer at their ‘donations’?
As one who took big deductions in the 1990’s, the answer is “yes”.
Talking about failed targets! While searching for something else, I stumbled over the following post by Jeff Jacobsen today. This is an excerpt from Source magazine #100 (from 1995 I think):
https://whyweprotest.net/threads/the-ias-goals-for-1989.107683/#post-2249202
FSO targets for the year 2000: “13. Over 100 Clears and 150 OTs being made each week at Flag.”
The group photo is from 1991. Among others there is Class XII Alain Kartuzinsky next to Senior C/S Richard Reiss in the third row. Right behind them the Div 2 registrars Sonja Jaques and Paul Miller.
Quite a find, Martin! Today I regret having thrown out a decade’s accumulation of cult promo back in the early aughts. I had it in a storage bin, boxes of flyers, ALL the different mags, lots of letters that knew had fliers in them. Back then there was so much cult mail that I’d usually throw it, unopened, into a box in the back of my closet. When the box was full I’d bring it downstairs to the storage bin. What a wealth of material to serve our purposes and prove our points about cult shrinkage today! But when I moved I didn’t have good closets or storage in my new place so I got rid of it all. Oh, well.
At least two of the people you mention are dead now (Alain Kartuzinsky and Richard Reiss). Are Sonja Jaques and Paul Miller still alive?
Mike your math never ceases to amaze and entertain. Rof
So I can spot 100 -120 staff members on the picture. 60 clears in 8 months means that to become clear, any pre-clear has (at least) to feed 2 staff members for 8 months – beside other expenses like elektricity etc.
Or another caculation:
Lets assume a working time of only 160 hours per staff member. That means 320 hours/month are used to produce only one clear in 8 months – in total this means 2560 hours needed to produce only one clear. No preclear will sit so long in the chair – so the hours in-wasted are mostly useless overhead of a highly inefficient moloch.
When I first glanced at the screen shot I thought the scene was a shipyard. Way to go on the visual design!
I think someone got a drone for Christmas and the screenshot was the result.
The only good thing about the Tampa Org is that they did not touch the outside of that beautiful cigar factory building.
Where is former ED Tampa Lynn Irons nowadays, anyone know? Did another major long terms Cultie bite the dust? Enquiring minds, etc.
Good question, Aquamarine. I wonder the same thing: Where is Lynn Irons? When Tampa tried to recruit me for staff, their big selling point was that they have more OTs on staff and more OT VII’s and VIII’s than any other place. I wonder with people reading the internet, seeing Leah’s and Mike’s show on A & E, reading Marty’s early blog, how many OT’s are left on staff at Tampa Org? I bet there has been some attrition.
I’m sure you’re right.
There’s an almost-inevitable typo at the end of the video, too: “#JoinTheWinngingTeam”. Freudian slip for “whinging”? 😉
Or whining. They must do that all the time.
Snortle! 🙂
Sung by the Sea Org (in their hearts) to the Dwarf each Thursday at 1:55PM, with apologies to Spiral Staircase:
I don’t remember what day it is
I don’t remember what time it is
All I know is that I’m really, really screwed,
And if all my stats fall thru
I’ll soon be RPF’d with you – Oh,
We’re shrinking more today than yesterday
But not as much as tomorrow
We’re shrinking more today than yesterday
But only half as much as tomorrow.
Each day brings a new day to loathe His face
Each day brings another way to hate this place
Every time He musters us our minds start to wander
And if all our dreams come true
We soon will Blow and say, “Fuck You”, Oh,
We’re shrinking more today than yesterday
But not as much as tomorrow
We’re shrinking more today than yesterday
But nowhere near as much as tomorrow.
Bravo! Outstanding post! Quite clever.
Thanks,OSD. Bitter, Defrocked Apostates just wanna have fun 🙂
Fourth Dynamic Girls just Wanna Have Fun!
I insist this one become the theme song for COS. It should go right to the top of the heap!
Seriously Aqua, you’ve missed your true calling as a “jingle song writer”….LOVE IT!
Mike, Your pieces crackle & the last lines are Stellar! I love what you report about The Cult of Sci. Keep Soaring & ????
The Scientology goal should be restated to “Clear the Planet of Scientologists”! At least they are making decent headway on that stat, eh?!
HAH! Well put.
‘Ya know, I sometimes wonder if David Miscavige is actually a double agent on our side. He is doing an incredibly good job of clearing the planet of scientologists. His stats are rocketing upward in this regard.
I am behind you all the way little brother. As Tom Cruise muttered, we could not ask for a more competent leader, and I have met leaders of leaders of leaders.
Three Cheers For Miscavige!!! Salute and SCOHB!
I think the word “in” was bleeped out when Cruise uttered “a more (in)competent leader…
I don’t see any real problem here. This IS the best they’ve got. Kind of reminds me of some folks I knew once who invested heavily in the Beta video cassettes some time back. Same type of venture… and result.
They were using Beta video cassettes? Well. They aren’t the sharpness knives in the chandelier.
Scientologists are a lot smarter… when everyone else was caught up in the war of betamax vs VHS, they were discovering magnetic reel-to-reel tape.
And in their modern Netscape searches, using Ask Jeeves, on their AOL accounts, they have discovered a powerful social media tool. Scientologists, get ready for… MYSPACE!
But the leader, our COB, Mr. David Miscavige is on a whole other level. In the day and age of Bricks and Mortar businesses falling by the wayside as a failed business model, his ecclesiastical holiness is… YOU GUESSED IT, building bricks and mortar buildings!
What a FUCK UP.
How many of the ‘completions’ were actually re-re-re doings of ‘clears’ who were suddenly no longer ‘clear’? How many of the ‘ned case comps’ had to re-re-re do that course? And of the 60, how many in each type? Was it 3 ‘clears’ and 57 ‘Neds’?
These numbers have all the clarity of the Mississippi.
Tampa Org, where dreams go to die. And bank accounts too.
Well, zemooo, it’s now all about the lowest courses of the bridge.
‘But I’m Clear! Why do I have to keep taking these courses?’
‘Because we decided you’re not Clear.’ But I’m OT!’
‘Ok, bring in the people who think they’re Clear. We’ll take care of them. Ready for the Reality Check?’
This video has my daughter, granddaughter and grandson in it. I haven’t seen my daughter or granddaughter since 2012 and I’ve never met my grandson. My crime? Not believing in the religious tenets of Scientology anymore. It’s so painful.
That sucks Gail.
Gail, I’m so very sorry that you have family still in the cult. Everybody on this blog is rooting for the time when the rest of your family comes home.
Oh my god. :(((( Heartbreaking.
Sorry Gail. I can’t imagine the pain Ron’s cult has caused you.
Long-time lurker, new poster…something about your post Gail compelled me to respond. I don’t know what it is, as I’ve literally read hundreds if not thousands of accounts of people disconnected from their family b/c of Scientology…read dozens of books and definitely believe that just when you think Scientology can’t get any worse, it gets worse.
I’m sorry Gail…Scientology breaks up families and hopefully your family will wake up soon…hugs
Oh my…
I wish for a speedie demise to the Scientology curse it places on families.
That must be really tough seeing that video for you. My sympathies Gail.
Gail, take courage; stay strong. This cult is doomed. Its coming down. It will happen. Hold onto that. We’re with you.
We are all with you, Gail. You’ve got many friends here.
Absolutely!
Thank you all. Your kind words are very appreciated.
Thank YOU for being so brave.
Never give up Gail, to give up means that THEY WIN. Someday in the future all that belongs to YOU will be returned ten fold. I can’t imagine the heartache you deal with, as a “never in”….but I’ve seen & heard many cults do the same thing to families NOT “in”.
To all those “in” contact with the outsiders means that the people on the outside can influence the decisions those still in are making. How can one defend something so illogical an nasty….it happens every day. Without outside influence, mind control is so easy…..to place fear in someone’s mind about “losing their soul for eternity under the guise of some “religion”….so scary & sad.
The BEST is yet to be…hang tough sweet Gail…..we are ALL standing by your side!
Gail, I’m so sorry your family is caught in the cult. It will come down sooner rather than later. It is what Mike, Leah, and all the brave Ex’s and Indies work for. When it comes down we will all get our kids back.
Gail …I am so very sorry. Sending you a cyber hug. Hang in there, we are all praying that this farce of a religion comes crashing down sooner than later and I deeply pray your daughter and grandchildren find their way back to you. It is hard enough to fathom how people lose so much of their lives, money and even themselves by being in this quagmire of a group that we must remember that for everyone inside there are families outside that are waiting and praying every day and only want their families back. All of us here are eagerly awaiting the day that happens for you and so many others. Mike and Leah have shown it can happen, people can wake up, we must keep the faith that more will follow until DM is standing alone in his empty buildings.
Gail I hope you are reunited one day soon. All the best to you! This is the kind of crime that scientology has inflicted on good people for far too long. How anybody can defend scientology anymore is simply disgusting.
Mike, where is the link to their video? There is no Tampa Org video on YouTube.
You can find it here: https://indd.adobe.com/view/fd33ebe2-928f-4c4f-ae73-32eb659595df
“Ruskies”…..OMG! I wondered why that sea org was wearing a “I Love Vad” tee shirt!
Isn’t it, ‘I love Putin?’
LESS than two people per week through NED is what the LARGEST Class V Org on the planet can do after countless MILLIONS of dollars invested and the entire FSO helping?
They won’t “clear” the local gas station restrooms at that rate any time this century.
And everyone here can take some credit for seeing to it that our favorite Cult of Serial Fleecers continues to shrink!
Yo Dave,
Count it up good buddy, there are less of You today than there were yesterday…….. that’s the way the shithole called $cientology git’s yer job done big fella! Thursday at too is comin fer ya.
To: Newcomer
From: David Miscavige COB RTC
Re: you and your stupid rap numbers.
I am sick and tired of you trying to be my main man, Chill E B! You’re not theta enough to rap effectively like my man Chill E B!
So cease and desist at once or face the full fury of my super OT abilities which will send you spinning into space!
ML
Dave.
“…the local gas station restrooms…” Still chuckling, Wynski.
When I was much younger, I had a great time in gas stations restrooms.
I wonder how many staff members in Tampa barely speek English or do it with heavy accent. Tampa and LA org are to major “advertisements” for different recruiting missions who try to lure people on staff in States. I know at least 3 people who moved from Russia (plus one from Kazakhstan) to be on staff. (Some of them may be in the sea org by the way)
Someone ought to let the DNC in on this. No doubt there is a connection between Dave and collusion with Russia.
Perhaps Joy Villa has made some plans to help our favorite hair do.
🙂 Newc.
Joy Villa. Thought she was a star. But, like everything else, she went nowhere.
Like a good Scientologist!
Davy’s Central Asia recruitment campaign: Sea Org Slaving in Scientology for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
LRH Birthday Event: The Running of the Wogs
There are a lot of new SO recruits from Russia and Eastern Europe. More than half the young, new, not even very trained MAA’s at Flag are all Russian. Maybe by now even more are Russian.