Iraq Veteran Scott Huesing, left, speaks during the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” panel discussion, along with Afghanistan Veteran Marjorie K. Eastman and Vietnam Veteran Karl Marlantes at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Three combat veterans – each representing one of the nation’s wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan – shared experiences as they discussed the effects of a society living in perpetual conflict.
Chapman University’s Center for the Study of War and Society hosted the examination of the severity of these wars and their impact our nation’s politics and culture.
Afghanistan Veteran Marjorie K. Eastman, left, greets a supporter after speaking at the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” panel discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Iraq Veteran Scott Huesing, left, greets supporters after speaking at the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” panel discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Iraq Veteran Scott Huesing, left, listens to Afghanistan Veteran Marjorie K. Eastman as she speaks during the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” panel discussion, along with Vietnam Veteran Karl Marlantes and Chapman University Professor Dr. Gregory Daddis, far right, at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Iraq Veteran Scott Huesing, left, speaks during the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” panel discussion, along with Afghanistan Veteran Marjorie K. Eastman and Vietnam Veteran Karl Marlantes at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Veteran Karl Marlantes speaks during the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Iraq Veteran Scott Huesing’s book “Echo in Ramadi” sits for sale during the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” panel discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Chapman University Professor Dr. Gregory Daddis, left, chats with a fan after moderating the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Santa Ana High JROTC member Shirley Meunier listens to speakers during the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” panel discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Veteran Karl Marlantes, center, speaks during the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” panel discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Chapman University’s Center got the Study of War and Society sponsored a panel discussion, “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict,” at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Iraq Veteran Scott Huesing, left, signs a copy of his book “Echo in Ramadi” for Commander Tom Osseck, Senior Naval Science Instructor at Santa Ana High School, after speaking at the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” panel discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Iraq Veteran Scott Huesing, left, signs a copy of his book “Echo in Ramadi” for Commander Tom Osseck, Senior Naval Science Instructor at Santa Ana High School, after speaking at the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” panel discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Atendees listen to the panelists during the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” discussion, along with Vietnam Veteran Karl Marlantes and Chapman University Professor Dr. Gregory Daddis, far right, at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Chapman University Professor Dr. Gregory Daddis, far right, thanks the panel of Veterans, Scott Huesing, Marjorie K. Eastman, and Karl Marlantes, from left, after the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Afghanistan Veteran Marjorie K. Eastman, right, signs a copy of her book “The Frontline Generation” for a fan after speaking at the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” panel discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Afghanistan Veteran Marjorie K. Eastman speaks during the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” panel discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Veteran Karl Marlantes, left, greets Travis Brewer after speaking at the “Three Wars: American Veterans in an Age of Perpetual Conflict” discussion at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Gregory Daddis, a retired U.S. Army colonel who came from West Point to head up Chapman’s new graduate program, led the panel discussion with authors Karl Marlantes, Marjorie Eastman and Scott Huesing. The graduate program focuses on the social, moral and cultural aspects of how societies go to war, experience war and deal with war’s consequences.
“We wanted to take a serious approach to study the problems posed by war,” Daddis said. “Our vision is for Chapman to become a national resource for practitioners, and a program designed with the ultimate aim of helping understand the role, and the costs, of war around the globe.”
The sold-out Sept. 19 event was held at the Pacific Room in Newport Beach and included an audience of 150.
In the panel discussion, Daddis asked each veteran to weigh in on topics such as command philosophies; the intersection of combat and civilian life; killing in war; and the potential for evil to become ordinary. He also asked each about their style of leadership.
“To inspire 18- and 19-year-olds who are doing our nation’s bidding and ultimately take another life, which we as commanders order them to do, you have to inspire them even in your absence,” said Huesing, an infantry Marine who served 24 years and deployed 10 times. “My leadership philosophy was very clear. We will train hard, we will fight and we will win.”
For Marlantes, who served with the Marines in Vietnam and was awarded the Navy Cross and multiple other medals, the key is competence and authenticity.
“These kids, their lives depend on you,” he said. ” If you can’t call the airstrike into the right place, that’s bad. Your competency means a lot because it builds confidence that you won’t lead them astray. Authenticity is key. I’ve seen first lieutenants and sergeants show up and within a minute their fate is sealed. The ones who succeed are totally authentic.”
For Eastman, an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army Reserves in Afghanistan, leadership was about setting an example through character. The 10-year veteran was awarded the Bronze Star and Combat Action Badge.
“How you walk the walk matters,” she said. “You don’t need a title to be a leader.”
As wars continue across the globe, Marines and soldiers are finding the lines blurred between the battlefront and the civilian world. The panelists discussed how that phenomenon influenced their own decisions.
“How you deal with that is you learn as you go,” Huesing said. “As we were thrust into the city of Ramadi, it was also populated by 300,000 Iraqis. These were people. They weren’t collateral damage.
“At times they took us in, they fed us, they gave us information when their own lives were at risk,” he said. “That was a unique experience, because we did have a unique understanding of the culture we were fighting in.”
“My analogy is, I can always give a young Marine, a soldier, a box of ammunition and have him go, with a little bit of training and some drive, to go from zero to 60 and attack and kill the enemy. To get that same 18-year-old kid to go from 60 to zero, is a real leadership challenge as a commander,” Huesing said.
As an example, Huesing pointed the situation often seen in urban conflicts now where Marines must realize that most of the civilian population surrounding them does not represent the enemy they are fighting in the same territory.
Huesing’s description of urban combat resonated with Greg Young, of Orange, who served in Vietnam for the U.S. Army in 1967 and 1968. He attended the event with a group of other Vietnam veterans.
“I worked in Saudi Arabia and understand what he described about the poor families just trying to survive,” Young said. “I can’t imagine what it was like to have to be in that environment.”
Emily Olague, a Chapman student, also scooped up Huesing’s book about his 2006 experiences in Ramadi.
“I loved what he had to say and his ability to share his experiences about the war,” she said. “People in the military spend their lives protecting us, and I feel there’s this unspoken barrier we’ve put up over the years. For anyone to share their story allows us to have that relationship as a society.”
For many at the event, the three authors were putting a face to the conflicts. For Eastman, she said she is hopeful those who attended learn from the discussion.
She and Marlantes both advocated for some sort of national service for all, adding that presently about half of 1% of Americans serve in the military, and half of those volunteers come from just seven southern states.
“I hope those who attended can now put a face to this age of perpetual conflict,” Eastman said. “People fulfill our nation’s foreign policy commitments. And, less than 1% of Americans have served in the military since 9/11. A disproportionate weight and a disconnected society are dangerous precedents as we move forward in uncertain times.”
