From Combat to Healing: A Vietnam Veteran's Journey to Find Peace

In 1969, Michael J. Arndt was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Vietnam as a combat infantryman. After 40 years, he returned to Vietnam, an experience which began his healing and led to his commitment to aid veterans through the arts. Arndt then began interviewing veterans from WW II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. He created a multimedia theatrical piece, “Under Fire: Stories of Combat Veterans Across Generations” which was performed in 2015 at Cal Lutheran, and has been produced a number of times as a way of opening conversations with veterans and non-veterans. The play has led to the writing of a book to assist veterans in using their stories and art as a healing force. This lecture details Arndt’s combat experience and its effect upon his life when he returned, including his artistic works. 

Michael J. Arndt, MFA, has been a professor of Theatre Arts at Cal Lutheran for 40 years and is the artistic director of the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company (KSC). He was named a “local hero” by the Ventura County Reporter and “Patriotic Citizen of the Year” by the Conejo Valley Chapters of the Military Order of the World Wars and The Military Order of the Purple Heart. A Vietnam combat veteran, Arndt is currently co-authoring a book about the arts as a healing force for combat veterans titled “Making Contact: The Way to Healing from the Trauma of Combat.”

Fifty and Better was designed to offer university-level courses and lectures (no tests, no homework) taught by experts in the field, and to host social engagement activities for people age 50 and older.

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Register by March 23, by 3 p.m.