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Date 3-29-06
Contact David Tisdale 601.266.4499
Hattiesburg—Nathaniel
Fick, an award-winning author who served in the U.S. military in
Iraq and Afghanistan, will recount his experiences as a soldier
and address other topics related to war and the military at the
University of Southern Mississippi’s spring 2006 University Forum
April 6 at 6:30 p.m. in Bennett Auditorium.
The event is
sponsored by the Southern Miss Honors College. Admission is free
and open to the university community and general public.
Fick is the
author of One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Corps Officer,
which recently earned a 2005 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New
Writers Award. At the University Forum, Fick will discuss his experience
as a junior officer in Afghanistan and Iraq, including tactics,
ethical decision-making, small-unit leadership, young people in
public service, and other topics. He will also present a photographic
PowerPoint presentation and be available for a question-and-answer
session with the University Forum audience.
“We are excited
to have Mr. Fick present at our University Forum,” said Southern
Miss history professor Dr. Brad Bond, who serves as director of
University Forum. “He is an articulate and thoughtful individual.
When he speaks about his experiences combating counter-insurgents,
he captures the attention of civilian leaders of the military as
well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
Fick was born
in Baltimore in 1977. He graduated with high honors from Dartmouth
College in 1999, earning degrees in classics and government. While
at Dartmouth, Fick captained the cycling team to a U.S. National
Championship and wrote a senior thesis on Thucydides’ History of
the Peloponnesian War and its implications for American foreign
policy. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States
Marine Corps upon graduation and trained as an infantry officer.
He led his platoon
into Afghanistan and Pakistan only weeks after 9/11, helping to
drive the Taliban from its spiritual capital in Kandahar. After
returning to the U.S. in 2002, he was invited to join Recon, the
Corps’ special operations force. Fick led a reconnaissance platoon
in combat during the earliest months of Operation Iraqi Freedom,
from the battle of Nasiriyah to the fall of Baghdad and into the
perilous peacekeeping that followed.
Fick left the
Marines as a captain in 2003 and is currently pursuing a master’s
degree in international security at Harvard University’s John F.
Kennedy School of Government and a Master of Business Administration
at the Harvard Business School. His work has been featured on the
television program 60 Minutes, as well as on the BBC and
National Public Radio, and his writing has also appeared in newspapers
across the country, including The New York Times, The
Washington Post, and the International Herald Tribune.
Dr. Ken Panton,
dean of the Southern Miss Honors College, said University Forum
presenters offer their audiences a unique opportunity for personal
enrichment.
“The University
Forum is a wonderful opportunity for students and others to broaden
their intellectual horizons by interacting with distinguished experts
from a wide range of academic disciplines, from the arts, from business,
and from other sectors of society,” said Dr. Ken Panton, dean of
the Southern Miss Honors College.
For more information,
contact Southern Miss Public Relations at 601.266.4499.
Click to enlarge
Nathaniel Fick
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