Phyll Stevens
Lieutenant Commander Phyll Stevens
We did not get along at all-though she did at one point grant me Kha Khan status. Not that it did any good in the end.
I recall our first meeting. At Lee St around 1973 or 74.
Was talking with the then ED Helen Shelton (later to marry John Parselle) down in her office near reception. She indicated I should go over and meet Phyll, a “top SO exec” who had just arrived in Sydney on a mission.
So I walked over to introduce myself, offered my hand and she simply looked me up and down rather dismissively, without saying anything. I thought, “Wow. I really do not LIKE this woman.”
I was struck then by the immediacy and forcefulness of that thought.
There was little doubt in my mind that I had been viewed, assessed and rejected, so well could she project. Ya didn’t hafta be psychic to feel that wrath.
That pretty much set the tone for all future interaction between us.
Though she left me alone for the most part and we had no screaming matches to speak of (was pretty one-sided), I learned early on to be very wary of her.
Our first confrontation came not long after our first meeting. I was in the exec office trying to deal with some issue I had with Brian Rackham(Tech Sec-and there’s another fine piece of nasty work. See? I can judge harshly too! J) and suddenly Phyll is shouting at me “How dare you come in here and attack my upstat execs!!”.
Quite stunned, I turned to look at her and she shouts “DON’T TR-0 ME!”
That pretty much sealed things for me, in my own mind.
For one thing, I was not attacking at all. For another, Brian Rackham was a total prick and part of my surprise was the sudden realization that Phyll could not even see that! I thought, “holy shit! If she is so blind she can’t even see where that man is coming from, it really is going to be a me- versus-them scenario.”
And it certainly became that and remained so for the remainder of my time there.
I just hated being there so much.
To her credit, I believe Phyll did a lot of good work and was quite instrumental in “making” that org successful. But I hated never knowing from one time to the next what to expect in terms of her moods.
That’s the org “think”-that it is a positive thing to be able to express one’s current emotions without restraint or concern about repercussions. In other words, if you feel like shitting all over someone, it’s ok to do that. If they can’t deal with it, that’s their problem.
She could be positively vicious-fanaticism taken to the extreme.
Writing this, I am amazed at the sheer number of instances of abuse that come to mind. It’s almost like the attitude first exists and thereafter any action, thought, conduct, projection verbalization, etc in alignment with that attitude is somehow deemed “acceptable”. And the prevailing attitude must surely be no less than that of absolute contempt given the nature and prevalence of those abuses. This was/is endemic in the organization.
How truly bizarre.
(Pardon me. I wanted this to be a rant and instead, I am philosophizing. J)
But seriously, I think that to me, Phyll epitomized the sheer idiocy and irony of the situation. I was witness to an organization dedicated to freedom and truth being taken over by a draconian military regime! I didn’t sign up for that.
Probably Phyll’s greatest disdain was reserved not for those who left but for those even WANTING to leave. (How does that work? You treat them as slaves and when they object and want to leave you are completely indignant! Huh?)
But it’s true. It became a crime-written in policy- to even SPEAK to anyone about wanting to leave.
Forget about the terms of your contract.
You signed up for 5 years but at the end of that time could not leave unless you had a replacement.
A real catch-22.
As the only acceptable replacement could be someone with the same amount of training and experience as you, you were limited to those who had been in as long or longer than you.
You were trapped.
That happened to Noel O’Donnell. He did his 5 years after which he dared to leave in spite of her objections. His reward for those years of faithful service…? A Committee of Evidence, denial of further OT levels, etc. We slammed him. I know because I was on that Committee. To my everlasting shame, I went along with the findings mostly because I was in fear of the same thing happening to me as my time was also almost up.
You didn’t cross Phyll.
OK, let me throw just a few names at you;
Jan Hill
Peter Sparshott
Martin Bentley
Linnah and Kevin McPherrin
Harry Mason
Nick Cramey
Henry Vains
(I've left out the overly restimulative ones (lol) and I'll save the rest for later.)
Start talking!
They had just got married when I joined Tours. She gained so much kudos from that 2D that she was like the D/CO Tours even though she was a fairly new Reg herself. Mind you, to be fair, she was pretty good at making GI I seem to recall. But she was so much higher ont eh totem pole than long term reges like Sue McClintoch, her hubby, John Dunstan, Michelle etc. It was really clear she used her connection 100% of the time. 
