Whirl- winding

I have been whirl-winding for the past several weeks and not able to enter anything in the blog. Now I have landed and am reflecting on where I have been, and what I have done. Two weekends ago I was invited to Mentone Alabama as a workshop leader for one hundred and ten men. There has been a men’s gathering meeting there for the past fourteen years. Author and men’s group leader John Lee is the primary organizer, Robert Bly the poet, and Robert Moore the Jungian scholar we were there to reflect on Robert Mores book The King, The Warrior, The Magician, The Lover. Robert’s book is referring to male psychological archetypes. I was obviously there to speak from the warrior perspective.

It was fantastic to be in the presents of so many open hearted men. Robert Bly spent time with me looking over my poetry and was very supportive. John Lee a long time friend presented some of his current new work which focuses on the topic of passivity. His new book will be outstanding; he is addressing a topic that is relevant to all of us.

What is left of the men’s movement is small but strong and potent. To be around men who are looking beyond their own egos is so unusual that I left being affected for several days. There were many men who brought their son’s. It was really nice to see these young men working on their issues.

War is on these men’s minds, several vets came to my workshop and we discussed Vietnam as well as the current wars. I was asked several times “What can I do to help support the vets?” The answer I most often gave was, “Be there, listen, witness, don’t turn off or turn away, offer your presents.”

Things to come on this blog will be some talk about the Grand Rounds I gave at Four Winds Hospital on the topic of PTSD. I will also report on my trip to Tallmadge Ohio where I was the key note speaker and workshop leader for the The Warrior's Journey Home. Stay tuned.

Be Well

Larry

Veterans Day

Veterans Day

A day to remember my War.

A day to feel in my heart, Marines I once knew.

A day to pray for lost peace.

A day to remember that I was not welcomed home.

A day to remember my old war prayer

to commit to life with the same intensity that I feared death.

A day to see that many people do not honor veterans.

A day to hear the flag snapping at the wind.

A day for my soul to shed its uniform and stand naked in the mirror.

Oath Taker and Oath Breaker

On October 3, 1967 I took the following oath to join the United States Marine Corps:

"I, Larry Winters, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and, that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

Lately I've begun wondering if you, the folks I was protecting from those communist insurgents, ever took any kind of oath? The answer to this question is no. If you were born in the US, you took no oath of citizenship. If you lived outside the country and applied for citizenship, you had to take an oath.

By the time I got to Vietnam I did not believe we should be there; but I did my duty and fought. I took my oath seriously, as did many who felt as I. I was recently investigating oaths and what they have met historically and I found out that in the past oaths were considered solemn statements that had to do with the truth, allegiance, promises, honor, ethics and the preservation of life. Many oaths invoked a divine witness. In my searching I was looking for something I was calling a "citizens oath". I was hoping to find a citizen oath that dedicated the oath takers to taking care of those who were injured while protecting the citizenry in times of war. What I discovered was a citizen oath from ancient Greece called the "Athenian Ephebic Oath". The Ephebic Oath was sworn by young men the ages 18-20 upon induction into the Ephebic College.

To read the full article please go to my website makingandunmaking.com

Semper Fi Parents

Today I spoke at gathering of Semper Fi parents. I opened by saying that Semper Fi means "Always Faithful." This would be a good oath for the American public towards it veterans. There was a strong military presents in the room with a Marine Gunnery Sargent who spoke about the Iraq War and gave various reasons why people should be honored to be involved with the Marines.
I spoke about PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There were several parents in the audience that had lost sons in the Iraq war. I had a number of conversation with parents that asked me to sign my book to a son in the war or recently back from war. They were concerned that their kids were suffering from PTSD and wanted to where help was available.
This was a sobering experience for me, its been a while since I'd been in a room with so many Marines and there need to justify what they were doing and had done was palpable. There was an undertone of pain and loss, but to touch this would have left parents and Marines with a feeling that the sacrifices were perhaps in vain, so the tenor was kept positive and patriotic.
I do honor those men and women who offer their lives to protect our country, but I do not honor the turning of our heads from what they have been asked to do, and our expectation they the become who they were before the left. Healing and forgiveness need to be primary elements for the recovery of the traumas of war, not the bowed out chest and the lifted chin and the Marine stance of bring it on.

Be Well

Larry

The Making and Unmaking of a Marine is now on Amazon

The long wait for my book to hit amazon is over. If you would rather give amazon the 60% instead of my publishing company Millrock Collective then you may find my book on the big book seller. If you'd like to help the smaller publisher you can get The Making and Unmaking of a Marine on my website makingandunmaking.com I welcome all feed back.

Larry

Poems Can Heal

There is a chapbook that was just published by Vietnam vet named Dayl Wise. There are 18 vets that have written poems including Dayl. The title of the book is Post Traumatic Press 2007 poems by veterans. It can be purchased by emailing dswbike@aol.com. I have several poems in it and of course highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in understanding what war does to human beings.
Poem

When a man kills another man
he must dig two graves.
One in the earth for the dead man.
One in his heart for his spirit,
or he will not return.

Larry Winters

Homeless Vets

This past Wednesday I spoke at Montrose VA in Peekill NY. The topic was homeless veterans. There were sixty people there many from the Montrose staff including homeless vets, who by the way asked several questions, and made some important statements about there personal plight. There were also folks there from the VVA and other veteran related organizations in the community. The talk went well, my main focus was helping them to role reverse with the vet in order to understand them better when they show up in their offices unwashed, drug addicted, and angry that at once time they offered their lives for this country. Here is a little of what I said, “Yes we have a volunteer army; these men and women did sign up. Did they know the truth about what they were getting into? No. Nor did we. And yet the revelations since then has not slowed down the number of jobless volunteers enlisting. So what would support to our returning soldiers look like? To start with, let's acknowledge that they offer the ultimate - their lives. This deserves the highest honors we civilians can bestow: Care, concern and acceptance when they come home.

War is a powerful initiation. No one comes back from it the way they left. We must accept this and stop expecting to see the same young people we sent off to war return home. Their wounds, both physical and psychological, have altered them. These changes need to be integrated and healed so veterans can find productive roles in society.

Our veterans are more than soldiers who served. They are our warriors who protected our country. In today's high-tech gigabit world there is a danger in seeing our soldiers as little more than "war-bits." It becomes easy to forget that a human being is holding the joy stick in a M1 Abrams tanks and that the video feed is a killing field. Video games can be turned on and off. In war, when the power switch is turned off it's never turned back on.”

It was my experience that many at the VA are folks who are working hard with an overload of clients; they show interest in trying to understand the perspective of the vets they serve.

At the end of the workshop one of the administrators approached me about buying my book “The Making and Unmaking of a Marine”, she agreed to supply her staff with books. This of course made my day selling ninety book warmed my heart and opened my mind to seeing that here were folks that had a true interest in hearing what returning soldiers feel. If you haven’t read the book yet please put your order in the website is makingandunmaking.com