On May 22, 2018, aboard the aircraft carrier the USS Intrepid (now a National Historic Landmark), Retired Officer Teaching Fellow Robert Cassidy (third from left, blue jacket) and several members of the Wesleyan Veteran Posse, along with two students from Cassidy’s class, enjoyed a screening of Going to War. This documentary film, for which Sebastian Junger ’84 served as co-executive producer, explores the experience of serving in the military during war through interviews with veterans. Junger (third from right; back row, suit jacket) took questions from the audience—including the Posse group—and met with the Wesleyan contingent separately, posing for this photo. “Michael Freiburger ’21, one of our Posse veteran students asked Junger, ‘How do we find better ways to communicate who we are and what we feel about having been at war?’” recalls Cassidy. “I think there was a mutual respect between the veterans and Junger, who spent almost a year in the Korengal Valley, a very rough place in Afghanistan.” Some of the Posse veterans who attended hope to plan more events next year to explore this question further, in order to cultivate a shared understanding among traditional Wesleyan students and Wesleyan’s veteran students. (Photo courtesy Robert Cassidy)
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Jeff Harder
Mike Mavredakis