S. Brian Willson grew up in a conservative family. A number of events in life were already changing his views when he received a draft notice. He was in law school, but not permitted a deferment. Still he said, “I was a total believer in the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War but not a gung-ho, combat-seeking young man.” He went to Vietnam where eventually he had an “epiphany.”

It was while observing the after-effects of these very “successful” bombings that I experienced an epiphany. On one occasion in April 1969, in eerie safety, I witnessed the incredible destruction that had just been inflicted in daylight morning hours on a typically defenseless village about the size of a large baseball stadium. With smoldering ruins throughout, the ground was strewn with bodies of villagers and their farm animals, many of whom were motionless and bloody, murdered from bomb shrapnel and napalm. Several were trying to get up on their feet, and others were moving ever so slightly as they cried and moaned.

Most of the victims I witnessed were women and children. At one dramatic moment I encountered at close range a young wounded woman lying on the ground clutching three young disfigured children. I stared, aghast, at the woman’s open eyes. Upon closer examination, I discovered that she, and what I presumed were her children, all were dead, but napalm had melted much of the woman’s facial skin, including her eyelids…

My experience in Vietnam changed my life forever as was the case for so many young men and women who found themselves struggling for physical and psychic survival in the jungles, rice paddies, and villages of Southeast Asia.

When Brian Willson heard about the “Contras” in Nicaragua, he recalled his experiences in Vietnam.

On September 2, 1987, Brian Willson protested against a shipment of weapons on the train tracks in California when the train did not stop.

The Navy train crew and their superiors knew in advance of our nonviolent three-member veterans’ blockade and had a clear, 650-foot view as the train approached us at high noon on a bright sunny day… I lost both legs, suffered a fractured skull, multiple other injuries, and nearly lost my life as I was run over by the speeding train.

Read the full account in his short online autobiography here. In 2011, he also wrote a memoir book, Blood on the Tracks. He talks about it here.

Brian Willson is still active writing, filming, and participating in veterans activities. A video was filmed the day before his 75th birthday this summer about the new documentary Paying The Price For Peace.

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