Brian Willson

His third major book, Don't Thank Me For My Service: My Vietnam Awakening to the Long History of U.S. Lies was published in 2018 by Clarity Press.

In 2016, a documentary, "Paying the Price For Peace: The Story of S. Brian Willson (and other activists)" was produced and directed by filmmaker Bo Boudart.

His psychohistorical memoir, Blood on the Tracks: The Life and Times of S. Brian Willson was published by PM Press in 2011.

His short autobiography, On Third World Legs, was published by Charles Kerr, 1992.

Willson is the recipient of many awards for his peace and justice activities, and was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award at the Kennedy Library and Museum on September 26, 1992.

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. 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.

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.

In 1988, a documentary, "The Healing of Brian Willson" was produced by Idanha Films.

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, 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. 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. Jesse 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. 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. Some protestors sat on the tracks, trying to prevent them from engaging in direct action at an otherwise symbolic protest.

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, El Salvador, 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.

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.

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.

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, and the UK Chapter in England). 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.

S. Brian Willson (born July 4, 1941) is a U.S. American Vietnam veteran, peace activist, and trained attorney.