Willie Williams

I met Will Williams at a protest rally State Street, seeing him repeatly at other rallies for peace—an intense, Vietnam War veteran who is open and friendly. I introduced Willie Williams to Tom Laughlin at a Peace rally at James Madison. And Willie was so kind and receptive, greeting Tom as an old friend. Willie Williams was always so nice to people, and I think he acheived love.

I am a member of Veterans for Peace. I met Will thru the VFP Madison Chapter maybe in the early 2000's. In 2010 WI Public Television was sponsoring a Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans event at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI. Will was a well known Vietnam veteran and WPT had contacted him and interviewed him. He called and said, Buzz, they're trying to use this as Welcome Home as a recruitment effort with new the newest helicopters, vehicles and that stuff. We discussed what to do. We ended up with a training session sponsored by Veterans for Peace to be held at the event by us, and expressed our views that the Welcome Home to Vietnam Vets should NOT be used as a military recruitment tool and we decided to conduct a press conference on peace rather than war. By the day of the event May 20, 2010 the WI Public Television manager of the event said there would be no new military equipment, etc. at the event. My wife Kay and I drove up to Green Bay from Stoughton, WI and were were a 15 min. or so late to meet Will on the corner where the press conference was to be held. We had sent out an invite to the media to join us. Will was at the corner, there looked like about 15 media folks there and a whole group of men I did not recognize. Will was to be the lead talker at the press conference and I the MC. When I got there I told the media we would start in 5 min. or so. I quickly interviewed about 6 or so men standing there and they were all veterans mostly from Vietnam. So we had them all talk. Will led off and then I would bring up each vet and he would then talk about it is better to try to resolve differences via peace than it is war. They said what they wanted. It lasted maybe 15 plus min. Then we invited the media to do one on one interviews. Will was a very good man who I greatly respected. He is also a man who went thru living hell. Peace Will!!! Buzz Davis, US Army 1967-70 forced to train as an infantry officer but luckily was sent to S. Korea. We have many fine people like Will in our military. The Army and Special Forces were lucky to have a man like Will! Here is a video of Will explaining his views. https://pbswisconsin.org/lz-lambeau/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpx90C5n1fU&list=PL9238AC0E440908A2&index=8

Mr. William’s was a stalwart citizen, soldier, leader of a platoon and survivor of the Happy Hill debacle upon whom friendly fire rained down. He eventually reconciled his own trauma and became an advocate for Oeace and his stirring talks for social justice became a legacy to inspire future generations. his devotion to his beloved “Dot”, Chickie and extended family members are a tribute to his love for family as well as his own efforts to speak out against social injustice marks him as a man and citizen worthy of long lasting respect and honor. I am privileged to have known him. Bob Kelter