Pros
Currently, I cannot honestly recommend Flag as a place to go for standard Scientology. When I first began my 16 year career at Flag in Oct 1986 it was a mixed bag, it was still very standard in many ways and esteemed technical terminals were more or less treated well. This started to change for the worst in 1988 with the launch of the Freewinds and the release of non-standard and incomplete New OT VIII. Prior to this time, one could go to Flag and get good treatment and results; with the release of the half-baked New OT VIII began the downward slide of technical results that could be relied on and this also began the pervasive degrading treatment of excellent technically trained Sea Org Members and then Class V staff and Mission staff who came to Flag for training, both technical and administrative training.
Working under Debbie Cook, until the arrival of David Miscavige with his personal agenda in 1983, was one of the highlights in my 25 year career in the Sea Org. She is number one on my list of ten individuals whom I had the utmost admiration and respect for as Sea Org Officers.
The physical premises are beautiful, the accommodations and service were superlative when I was there and it probably remains so in the main. It is quite expensive, however, if you can afford to stay in such a place it is quite enjoyable as long as you do not take services and you are allowed past the Security Guards.
Cons
As covered in "Pros", currently there are no dependably high standards of technical deliver. Per information from highly regarded technical and administrative staff who left Flag within the past five years, it is necessary to violate group agreements in order to attempt giving good service to a public person.
During my time at Flag, I held different executive and departmental positions and worked in the Office of The Captain FSO, Debbie Cook from Feb 1982 to Dec 1984. When David Miscavige arrived with about 1/3 of the entire Hemet Base, including RTC Reps and most of WDC and CMOI, life at the Flag Land Base became a reign of terror, literally and no exaggeration. People were being taken off post, sent to the RPF, demoted and publicly pilloried on a daily basis. One exec, The Chief Officer Don Jason, was publicly smeared and humiliated, Declared SP and sent secretly to the Freewinds where he was held prisoner until he managed to escape years later. Although I worked in the Captain's Office and was privy to quite a lot of data, I did not know this had happened until about 15 years later. He simply disappeared, vanished into thin air, never to be heard from again. Other executives were only smeared publicly and removed from post or sent to the RPF. The other debacle which destroyed all the carefully planned and carried out standard programs done by Debbie Cook to expand the FSO, was to remove all the other veteran officers and executives by sending them all out, with wives or husbands, to the other Sea Org Bases around the world. Half of them are either dead or no longer in the Sea Org.
There is more, much more, I can write about, however, this is all I can stomach for one review.
Ah, one more thing. The slogan of "Flag, The Mecca of Technical Perfection" was coined by David Miscavige at the onset of his campaign to destroy the FSO as Ron's Org. LRH called it the "Friendliest Place in the World", and that is what was most important to all staff until the arrival of David Miscavige.
