1. Sgt. Bill S., On the Military Firing Line

On the Military
Firing Line

IN THE ALCOHOLISM TREATMENT PROGRAM

Sgt. Bill S.

Sgt. Bill S., On the Military Firing Line in the Alcoholism Treatment Program: The Air Force Sergeant Who Beat Alcoholism and Taught Others to Do the Same, July 2003, paperback edition ISBN 0-595-28382-9, x + 350 pp., $21.95.

An insightful, very readable book. The father of military alcoholism treatment tells about his own life and recovery from alcoholism, and describes how he set up the first officially sanctioned military treatment programs for alcoholics in the 1940s and 50s, when the Alcoholics Anonymous movement was first spreading across the United States. A survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, he almost died after the war from his own out-of-control drinking.

See Glenn C., Psychological vs. Spiritual Interpretations of A.A.: Sgt. Bill was the most articulate spokesman for those in early A.A. who wished to emphasize the psychological dimension of the program without using much in the way of traditional religious language. This book is a "must" read for anyone who wishes to understand the full range of early A.A. thought.

In addition, during the early 1950's in San Antonio, Texas, he and prominent American psychiatrist Louis Jolyon "Jolly" West developed the Lackland Model of alcoholism treatment , which combines psychiatric help in a small percentage of cases with extremely active involvement with the A.A. groups in the surrounding community. This was one of the three or four most successful approaches developed in the early years. If we compare the Lackland Model with the more heavily spiritual approach developed by Sister Ignatia and the early Akron A.A.'s at St. Thomas Hospital, and with the Hazelden-linked Minnesota Model which was eventually taken over by the psychiatrists and psychotherapists and drug addiction couselors, we will be able to understand much better the basic alternatives in treatment philosophy which programs must still choose between today.

"Singleness of purpose" and devotion to good old-time A.A. principles were the watchwords of Sgt. Bill's approach, which obtained an astounding but thoroughly documented 50% success rate for people going through the program the first time (in other words, up there with early Akron A.A.) even in the hostile environment of a hard-drinking military base.

The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941:
the Shaw is hit and explodes

Using his own recovery as a guide, he persuaded the Air Force to appoint him full time to working with other alcoholics. The success story which he and psychiatrist Dr. Louis Jolyon West related in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1956 was distributed all across the country by the National Council on Alcoholism.

If you think that you may have a problem with alcohol or drugs yourself, this book can save your life. The author describes in simple terms the processes which drive people to drink and use drugs, and the route to recovery. He talks about genetics, physical addiction, and the social and psychological pressures which produce subconscious conflicts and massive guilt in alcohol and drug abusers. For mental health professionals, he discusses the relationship between the twelve step program and basic psychiatric principles, and shows how the professionals and the A.A. and N.A. groups can work together to produce impressive recovery rates.

Photo taken from an attacking Japanese warplane of Hickam Air Base being hit
(at top of photo). Bill S. was awakened in his barracks to the sound of the airplanes
and exploding bombs, and had to run for his life through the barrage shown here.

This A.A. old-timer (fifty-five years sober) also talks about his early mentor Mrs. Marty Mann, the first woman to gain long-term sobriety in A.A. He describes his conversations with Sister Ignatia and the good old-timers in Akron, Ohio, his work with the noted alcohol researcher E. M. Jellinek at the Yale School of Alcohol Studies, and the way early A.A. meetings were organized and conducted. His book is a lasting monument to those early years, when it was first discovered that alcoholics could be saved.

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