Larry Winters

After returning from the Vietnam war, I focused on starting a family, getting an education, and finding a job. I succeeded in all these endeavors for a few years until each began to fail. As a result, I lost my marriage, changed my career to working solo as a carpenter, reevaluated what education was, and began to see my war experience as my true education.  Eventually, with help from various therapists and friends' support, I sorted out a tract in life that was suitable for the life experience I had encountered. I studied counseling, got a job at a psych hospital, continued my education, became head of veterans treatment, and worked for twenty-five years in this field.  

I have written three books, the first being The Making and Unmaking of a Marine, subtitle One Man's Struggle for Forgiveness. The book followed me from childhood to the war, my return from war, and ten years later, returning to Vietnam to seek forgiveness from my former enemies. My second book was fiction with the storyline following a Marine recruiter awakening to what the students he enlisted for the Gulf War faced when returning home. I have also written and produced a play titled Nothing Means Nothing about two combat vets ending their lives, which has become a prevalent theme in the world of returning vets.

I started a program in New York City with Intersections International focusing on making safe veteran civilian dialogues. First, I co-wrote a book with my friend Peter Pitzele to teach the modality I created titled Facilitators Manual for Guiding Veterans and Civilian Dialogues. Then, The Pentagon invited us to inform them about our program. The program lasted three years, often with over a hundred vets and civilians attending the monthly event. Today I write daily about the politics of war and the after-effects of war on morality, soul, and the misdirection of man's animal instincts when he starts wars for capital gain.

Participation on Humanity Rising

Day 704 Wed 5/24/23 The After Shocks of War: The Agony of Being a Vet