CORRECTION APPENDED

Five Harvard veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan shared heartfelt tales of their military service and what it had taught them about leadership and loyalty yesterday.

“You get to the place where you would do anything for the guy on your left or the gal on your right because frankly, you know they would do anything for you,” Captain Maura Sullivan, a Kennedy School of Government student, said at a forum held at the Institute of Politics.

“They are your family, they’re your brothers and sisters. You wanna be there with your guys,” added Lt. Col. Oscar Hall, a National Security Fellow at the Kennedy School, when speaking about his willingness to return to the war in Iraq.

Entitled “Leadership Lessons From the Front Lines,” yesterday’s event paid tribute to Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School students’ service in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Major Joseph Ewers, a current student at the Business School, admitted to feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt about his transition from Iraq to Cambridge.

“You always look forward and say, ‘Why am I not there? That’s where I should be, not here.’”

Trying to convey the significance of leadership by example, panelists vividly recounted their experiences in the field. Remembering an accident in Fallujah in which a U.S. convoy was struck by a vehicle carrying a bomb, Sullivan expressed her wonder at the unwavering enthusiasm of American soldiers.

“What makes a 20, 21, 22-year-old kid like me and like you—what makes them not only volunteer but insist on being sent on a mission of this sort? It was because of leadership by example.”

The event opened with a performance by a color guard, the singing of the national anthem, and a moment of silence held for soldiers in the Middle East.

A moment of tension arose during the question-and-answer session when a man who introduced himself as a reporter from the Boston Globe asked when gays would be accepted in the military.

After some in the audience gasped and murmured, panelists responded that they were uninvolved with decisions to implement such policies.

“There’s a difference between the architects of a policy and the executors of a policy,” Sullivan said.

“If and when the time comes that gays are integrated into the army, that Marine—gay, straight, black, girl—will be, to me, a Marine.”

David Gergen, director of the Center for Public Leadership and a moderator at yesterday’s event, expressed his satisfaction at finally being able to realize his desire to “renew the long tradition at Harvard of honoring veterans.”

“We salute many forms of service but we’re often silent in thanking those who serve in military uniform because the war is so controversial,” he said.

—Staff writer Brenda C. Maldonado can be reached at bmaldon@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION
The original print and online headlines of the story "Kennedy School Honors Harvard Vets" incorrectly implied that an event paying tribute to veterans was sponsored only by the Institute of Politics. In fact, the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School co-sponsored the event with the IOP.