this seems pretty accurate. i would like to note though that after around 03'-04' the staff at RCI lightened up, and the program is a little less difficult as what is stated in this Q&A. everything is pretty much the same, except now they eat HLA cafeteria's leftovers sometimes instead of MRE's, hike/run/pt slightly less, are forced to carry less weight at "mongo week", and the staff are not as hard-headed and abusive - as in, they dont make anyone chug water and then do jumping jacks anymore. but they still Pt the crap out of you if you slip up.
I would also like to note that the interviewee kinda brought this treatment upon themselves. not that he deserved to get sent away- no one does - but that he continued to be a jackass during his stay at HLA which resulted in him getting sent to RCI, SUWS, and 3 springs. most kids at HLA dont get abused to that extent unless they are real jackasses. most people smarten up and Pretend to go with the program, and have a pretty carefree time there. I'm not defending HLA, i fucking hate that place too. I'm just saying you make your stay there, and this guy made his own stay there very difficult for himself through his actions. granted, HLA staff overreacts and is abusive sometimes regardless, but you can pretend and get by. this guy refused to pretend and this is what he got. I admire his courage and integrity to an extent, but i also see this dude as stupid.
I am simply writing as the "stupis dude" mentioned above. The writer (guest42) poses an interesting theory "Fake it till you make it" which is what we used for a term to describe people that just went along and played the game so to speak. there is a serious problem with that approach. 3 or 4 of the people that were fakers are now DEAD from drug overdoses this leaves me with a conclusion that they did not get something out of the program that i did. what that is im not quite sure but i certainly dont think faking their treatment was beneficial. Also i would have to agree i caused ALL my own problems including the ones that led up to me being sent away! However, the "jackass" behavior was 100 percent intentional and my intent was to be booted from the program with no option but to go home. Eventually it did work, to most peoples disbelief, but i did have many hardships along the way, obviously. My main issue with the experience is, for all these people and their claims of a desire to help kids they were going about things all wrong, and while attempting to modify the students behavior they often exhibited behavior worse than the students themselves.
