At a time when the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Series will examine the Vietnam War from many angles, we must still ask how do we avoid more devastation and the waste of blood and treasure on our planet. What have we learned? What not?

Clear Actions Newsletter offers this special edition, in honor of the 30^th Anniversary of nonviolent vet and activist S. Brian Willson’s ordeal outside of Concord Naval Weapon’s Station, September 1^st, 1987, while trying to block a weapons shipment leaving the base for Central America.

Whatever you make of Mr. Willson’s story, you will find a sincere and passionate person trying to grapple with his demons and those of his country, willing to face unpleasant truths and speak out, engage and create a new and more peaceful paradigm. Part of his story is the one we all hold dear: that none of our family members will have to go to war. Yes, some vets were treated badly when they returned. We all have to live with the trauma that inflicted on their already traumatized psyches. It is also likely that most of those protesting the war saw ordinary citizens caught between patriotism and unscrupulous leaders and wanted them home safe and sound.

In Willson’s story, you will find information the connects to Veterans who are most likely not represented in the Burns and Novick series. They are vets who believe in transformation and healing, and, yes, in having each other’s back.

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How do we, as US citizens, parse the fears of suicide bombers with our own culturally self-destructive engagement in violence, through racism; through a gun lobby that keeps our leaders from passing even minimal controls on who can own a gun; and through an economy based upon weapons production, the politics of extraction and warfare? These are questions that many have been sensitized to by, among other things, the Vietnam War. Veteran’s for Peace is an organization that began as part of that soul searching

One of the founders was Lt. S. Brian Willson, USAF. While many veterans have had to dig deep to come to terms with how our country uses its military might, and become part of an alternative brotherhood of Nam vets, there is likely not any one Nam Vet that has done more soul searching, study, travel, writing and speaking out about his reflections, convictions and personal beliefs regarding US militarism. When working as a Veteran’[s Outreach Coordinator in Greenfield, Massachusetts, he intervened in eighteen Nam vet suicide attempts. He is willing to go into the dark places and dig deep for what he calls “at-one-ment”. He has sought, and possibly achieved, much inner resolution of trauma and cultural transformation.

The Burns-Novick series on Vietnam is likely to uncover many unresolved questions and unhealed feelings about our country and our relationships to each other and to other countries, at a time when the US is not being perceived as a force for intelligent and diplomatic leadership on the world stage.

Are we flexible enough to recognize past mistakes, unsustainable approaches, and moral failings? What are they? How can we right the course?

There were warning signs in the 1960’s, such as this one:

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

There were signs in the 80’s before the Gulf and the Iraq Wars:

There were people from all faiths, nationalities and all walks of life then, as there are now, who prayed and maintained a 24-hour presence outside Concord Naval Weapons Station during the Nuremberg Actions Vigil from 1987 to 1995. There were 2500 arrests during nonviolent demonstrations and 60 court cases to call attention to the death and destruction being caused by “military solutions” that were killing innocent civilians. Were they prophetic?

And there are signs now too.

Is this prophetic?

We invite your comments and your stories. If you would like to become part of a discussion group about the Vietnam War and the Burns and Novick Series, please contact Elizabeth V. Hallett at Peace House, 541-292-2106, in Ashland.

“When we only memorialize US soldiers, while ignoring the victims of our aggression, we in effect are memorializing war. I cannot do that. War is insane, and our country continues to perpetuate its insanity on others, having been constantly at war since at least 1991. We fail our duties as citizens if we remain silent rather than calling our US wars for what they are – criminal and deceitful aggressions violating international and US law to assure control of geostrategic resources, deemed necessary to further our insatiable American Way Of Life (AWOL).”September 1, 2017

(A message posted on Facebook)

So, 30 years ago today, I was nearly killed by the US Navy munition train at Concord, CA Navy Weapons Station. Earlier I posted 3 photos relating to this crime of state – two of the train as it struck and rolled over me, and one of me being fit for my prostheses by prosthetist Wayne Koniuk.

How I survived is a miracle, but when the Navy ambulance came and left, saying I wasn’t lying on Navy property, there was a heroine present who took over a dramatic process stopping my bleeding as she directed 4 other friends who were present to aid in restoring my life spirit, waiting the 20 minutes before the county ambulance arrived. Her name is Holley Rauen, who was my spouse/partner. We had been married but 10 days. Her 14 year old son Gabriel Ortega was one of the 40 or so witnesses to the attempted assassination, a horrible scene, traumatic for all.

You can find the unique and spirited Holley Rauen on Facebook, and we remain soul friends to this day, even as we divorced on friendly terms in 1990.

Thank you Holley

Background
Lieutenant S. Brian Willson, served as a 1st lieutenant, served as commander of a US Air Force combat security police unit in Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta in 1969. Troubled by what he saw, he was still trying to deal years later with the massive killing and destruction he saw there. When he visited Central America and realized that the US was intervening and promoting civil wars there, he recognized a familiar pattern. What follow are photos from his website with his own account of his experience as a peace activist. – Peace House Editor

By Jeff Manzelli S. Brian Willson (born July 4, 1941) is an American Vietnam veteran, peace activist, and attorney-at-law.^[1]Willson served in the US Air Force from 1966 to 1970, including several months as a combat security officer in Vietnam. He left the Air Force as a Captain. He subsequently became a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace(Humboldt Bay Chapter 56, California, later Portland, OR Chapter 72). Upon completion of Law School at American University in Washington, D.C., he became a member of the District of Columbia Bar. Willson has had a variety of jobs including penal consultant, prisoner rights advocate, dairy farmer, legislative aide, town tax assessor and building inspector, veteran’s advocate, and small businessman.

As a trained lawyer and writer, he has documented U.S. policy in nearly two dozen countries. Since 1986, Willson has studied on-site policies in a number of countries, among them:

Nicaragua, ElSalvador, Honduras, Panama, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Cuba, Haiti, Iraq, Israel (and Palestinian territories), Japan, and Korea, both North and South.

Documenting the pattern of policies that he says “violate U.S. Constitutional and international laws prohibiting aggression and war crimes,” Willson has been an educator and activist, teaching about the dangers of these policies. He has participated in lengthy fasts, actions of nonviolent civil disobedience, and tax refusal along with voluntary simplicity.

Senate aide

He was prisoner rights aide to Massachusetts State Senator Jack Backman, served on Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis’ homeless veterans and Agent Orange task forces, and worked with Massachusetts Lt. Governor John Kerry on Agent Orange and other veterans’ issues, later becoming a volunteer for Kerry’s first U.S. Senatorial campaign in 1984. After Kerry’s victory, Willson was appointed to his Veterans’ Advisory Committee.

Concord Protest and Injuries On September 1, 1987, while engaged in a protest against the shipping of U.S. weapons to Central America in the context of the Contra wars,[2] Willson and other members of a Veterans Peace Action Team blocked railroad tracks at the Concord, California Naval Weapons Station. An approaching train did not stop, and struck the veterans. Willson was hit, ultimately losing both legs below the knee while suffering a severe skull fracture with loss of his right frontal lobe. Subsequently, he discovered that he had been identified for more than a year as an FBI domestic “terrorist” suspect under President Reagan’s anti-terrorist task force provisions and that the train crew that day had been advised not to stop the train….

1. Brian Willson (born July 4, 1941) is an AmericanVietnam veteran, peace activist, and attorney-at-law.^[1]

Willson served in the US Air Force from 1966 to 1970, including several months as a combat security officer in Vietnam. He left the Air Force as a Captain. He subsequently became a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace (Humboldt Bay Chapter 56, California, later Portland, OR Chapter 72). Upon completion of Law School at American University in Washington, D.C., he became a member of the District of Columbia Bar. Willson has had a variety of jobs including penal consultant, prisoner rights advocate, dairy farmer, legislative aide, town tax assessor and building inspector, veteran’s advocate, and small businessman.

He was prisoner rights aide to Massachusetts State Senator Jack Backman, served on Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis’ homeless veterans and Agent Orange task forces, and worked with Massachusetts Lt. Governor John Kerry on Agent Orange and other veterans’ issues, later becoming a volunteer for Kerry’s first U.S. Senatorial campaign in 1984. After Kerry’s victory, Willson was appointed to his veterans’ advisory committee.

While working for Massachusetts Senator Jack Backman, he investigated brutality at Walpole State Prison for more than a year, concluding in an official report that Walpole revealed “An Exercise In Torture.”

Concord Protest and Injuries

On September 1, 1987, while engaged in a protest against the shipping of U.S. weapons to Central America in the context of the Contra wars,^[2] Willson and other members of a Veterans Peace Action Team blocked railroad tracks at the Concord, California Naval Weapons Station. An approaching train did not stop, and struck the veterans. Willson was hit, ultimately losing both legs below the knee while suffering a severe skull fracture with loss of his right frontal lobe. Subsequently, he discovered that he had been identified for more than a year as an FBI domestic “terrorist” suspect under President Reagan‘s anti-terrorist task force provisions and that the train crew that day had been advised not to stop the train.^[3] Three days after Willson lost his legs over 10,000 people gathered for a non-violent gathering in support of Willson, and against arms shipments to Central America. Jessie Jackson, Rosario Murillo, wife of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega along with Willson’s wife of 10 days, and stepson all spoke. Joan Baez sang and played music during this gathering.^{[citation needed]} At the same time a group of masked males, one wearing a Sons of Italy T-shirt, took it upon themselves to tear up the wooden train tracks where Willson was run over.^{[citation needed]} Some protestors sat on the tracks, trying to prevent them from disrupting the otherwise peaceful protest.^{[citation needed]}

In 1989 a music benefit was held in San Francisco to help raise funds for Willson. Performers who turned out in support were Nick Gravenites with guests Jerry Garcia and Pete Sears, Jackson Browne played a set, and Ed Asner and Wavy Gravy spoke.^{[citation needed]}Mimi Farina and Pete Sears later played a folk set for protesters just outside the barbed wire surrounding the naval base. They built the stage on some old railroad tracks using a generator for power. Their show was filmed by police from a tower just inside the base.

For years after the Willson incident, anti-war protesters maintained a 24-hour-a-day vigil at the weapons depot, which shipped between 60,000 and 120,000 tons of munitions each year to U.S. forces and allies, a Navy spokesman said.^[4]

Willson filed a lawsuit contending that the Navy and individual supervisors were given ample warning of their plan to block the tracks, and that the train crew had time to stop—which the subsequent official Navy report confirmed. The train crew filed a lawsuit against Willson, requesting punitive damages for the “humiliation, mental anguish, and physical stress” they suffered as a result of the incident, which was dismissed. U.S. District Judge Robert Peckham said Willson did not plan to cause the railroad workers any distress, because he assumed the train would stop before hitting him.^[4]

Willson later agreed to settle his lawsuit against the government and train crew for $920,000.^[5] He now walks with prostheses.

Minneapolis folk-punk group Boiled in Lead dedicated their version of the traditional Irish antiwar ballad “My Son John,” from their 1989 album From the Ladle to the Grave, to Willson.^[6]

Willson helped create Veterans Education Project (VEP) in Massachusetts; Vietnam Veterans Peace Education Network (VVPEN) in New England; National Federation of Veterans For Peace (NFVFP) in 1986 in Washington, DC; Veterans Fast For Life (VFFL) in 1986 on steps of the US Capitol, a water-only fast that concluded after 47 days, which led to the four fasters being placed on a domestic “terrorist” watch list; Veterans Peace Action Teams (VPAT) in 1987, training and sending observation and work teams into Nicaragua and El Salvador, a project that lasted 3 years; Nuremberg Actions at Concord, CA in 1987; Institute For the Practice of Nonviolence in 1988 in San Francisco; and The People’s Fast For Justice and Peace in the Americas, a 42-day water fast on the steps of the US Capitol in 1992. Willson was an early member of Veterans for Peace.^[7]

Organizations[edit]

Wilson helped create Veterans Education Project (VEP) in Massachusetts; Vietnam Veterans Peace Education Network (VVPEN) in New England; National Federation of Veterans For Peace (NFVFP) in 1986 in Washington, DC; Veterans Fast For Life(VFFL) in 1986 on steps of the US Capitol, a water-only fast that concluded after 47 days, which led to the four fasters being placed on a domestic “terrorist” watch list; Veterans Peace Action Teams (VPAT) in 1987, training and sending observation and work teams into Nicaragua and El Salvador, a project that lasted 3 years; NurembergActions at Concord, CA in 1987; Institute For the Practice of Nonviolence in 1988 in San Francisco; and The People’s Fast For Justice and Peace in the Americas, a 42-day water fast on the steps of the US Capitol in 1992. Wilson was an early member of Veterans for Peace.^[7]

Writing and film-making[edit]

While working for Massachusetts Senator Jack Backman, he investigated brutality at Walpole State Prison for more than a year, concluding in an official report that Walpole revealed “An Exercise In Torture.”

His first book, an autobiography, On Third World Legs (Chicago: Kerr) was published in 1992. He is Executive Producer of Santa Cruz Film Foundation, currently working on a documentary about the history of U.S. intervention in Korea that directly led to the Korean War, which he considers “one of the remaining unresolved international crimes of the Twentieth Century.”

In 2011, his book Blood on the Tracks was published.^[2]