PEACE CORPS VICTIM by Patrick Shea (Georgia)
In order to avoid libel lawsuits, an author can use assumed names. In my PC memoir, I did disparage two…
Peace Corps Victim: A Peace Corps Volunteer Story of Trauma and Betrayal
Patrick Shea (Georgia 2016-17 — Medically Separated)
Friesen Press
258 pages
$21.99 (Paperback); $ 9.99 (Kindle); $35.99 (Hardcover)
John writes: RPCV Patrick Shea wrote me about his book, and told me his story of his “Peace Corps Experience”
Patrick Shea
I have published my memoir on my time in the Peace Corps. I was almost killed in the Peace Corps by a foreigner, then assaulted by a volunteer, and then abused and manipulated by the Peace Corps Country Director. After this, I was broken down to the point I couldn’t stop shaking and was medically evacuated. The Peace Corps then threatened me with criminal prosecution if I took them to court. They refused to treat my psychological problems stemming from the abuse and then blamed me for it. Then they medically terminated me, and I needed multiple surgeries and was denied treatment for them. Due to the psychological trauma, I almost killed myself. The Country Director was recruiting for the CIA and was working in Afghanistan with Military Intelligence before he came to the Peace Corps. There is much more than what is written here.
Wow! not the Peace Corps I knew. But then we also have the case of the staff member in East Africa who killed someone while DWI and that seems to have been a case of covering it up.
Best,
G.
These are very serious charges. I hope the author has substantial proof for the libel suits.
With 240,000 people having been in the Peace Corps, it is inevitable that you are going to get some bad apples in the bushel. Coming from the top down with the allegation of a country director having been a former CIA recruiter may be pushing the envelope, but still anything is possible. An RPCV participated in the assault on the Captiol on Jan. 6. Another RPCV and Trump advisor is doing some hard time in a federal lock up. I’m sure a bit of research could find a few more. I was drafted into the Army after my Peace Corps service in 1968 and assigned to an intelligence unit in Germany. When I told the assignments officer that there was a law on the books forbidding such a posting, he went into another room and consulted with a higher up and came back and sent me to another type of unit that was not an intel unit. So they were following the rules back then. During my stay, I met people who claimed they used PCV’s in the field as sources of info. Those guys were working in Turkey near the Russian border. Fodder for a spy novel.
Advice to aspiring writers: If you must malign, use fiction.
Well, if you’re going “there”….who was the country director? Who appointed him?
In order to avoid libel lawsuits, an author can use assumed names. In my PC memoir, I did disparage two fellow volunteers – What’s his Face and What’s his Nose. Fourteen years later, no lawsuits.