Sharing the stories of those who served
STOCKTON — Josh Hunsucker was one of the lucky ones.
After his service in the U.S. Army, including 14 months in Iraq in 2007 and 2008 during the surge into Bagdad, Hunsucker returned home and began law school at University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law.
It required the same focus and attention to detail that was needed when he served as a second lieutenant in the infantry.
Some of those he served with, though, had it tougher when they returned to civilian life.
David Finkel, a Washington Post reporter who’d been embedded with Hunsucker’s 2-16 Infantry Battalion and wrote “The Good Soldier” about the Iraq War, followed up with “Thank You For Your Service,” which chronicled the lives of some of those soldiers when they tried to assimilate back into society. The book was made into a major motion picture and Hunsucker and his wife, Kelly, attended the premiere of the film last October.
Kelly Hunsucker, president of Stockton’s Team Red, White and Blue, a nonprofit dedicated to enriching the lives of veterans in their communities through social and physical activities, arranged to bring it to Stockton today as part of Veterans Week. It will screen at 6:30 p.m. in University of the Pacific’s Grace Covell Hall, followed by a discussion with Finkel.
“It was a great reunion with guys from his unit,” Kelly Hunsucker said. “It was cathartic for them, being back together. Everyone had a great time and it got me thinking about how we take of this stuff and put it into (Team Red, White and Blue), because the families featured in the movie explore the transition out of the military and into civilian life.”
The book and movie illustrated for Josh Hunsucker the challenge some of his friends faced.
“It was hard for me to read,” Josh Hunsucker said. “These were friends, and I kind of knew how some of them were doing and to read what some friends went through was tough. Sometimes it’s brutal and tough and raw.”
Hunsucker wanted to share their stories.
“It’s really important we understand a war movie doesn’t have to be ‘Saving Private Ryan’ or watching war. It’s important to show what happens after the war. A lot of people don’t think about that,” he said. “It raises an interesting conversation. There is a toll and cost to be paid after a war. It doesn’t mean everyone comes back broken and isn’t a productive member of society. A lot come back and are struggling, whether they’re feeling isolated, have PTSD or traumatic brain injury or missing limbs. There are struggles.”
Hunsucker, 36, who grew up in Orinda, met Kelly (Test), a St. Mary’s High School graduate, at the University of California, Davis, where he was a part of the ROTC program. He graduated in 2005 with degrees in history and political science. He and Kelly married in 2006 and he was sent to Fort Benning infantry training in Georgia, then to Fort Riley, Kansas for ranger school. He was there from September 2006, until he was deployed to Iraq the following February.
He left the Army in 2011 — finishing the remainder of his military contract plus two more years with the National Guard — and began law school.
It was while attending the Sacramento school, where he was active in the Student Veterans Association, that he was introduced to Team Red, White and Blue. He was active in the Sacramento chapter, and in 2016, two years after Hunsucker passed the bar and was started working at Neumiller and Beardslee, that he received an email that a vet named Daniel DiEva wanted to start a Team Red, White and Blue in Stockton. Hunsucker, a father of three — ages 8, 6 and 2 — jumped in immediately.
He reached out to Tony Vice at Fleet Feet, who helped put on events, and Kelly Hunsucker, 35, a former English teacher turned stay-at-home mom, became the president.
One of her great causes, reinforced by seeing “Thank You For Your Service,” is seeing that caregivers — estimated at more than 5.5 million — get the support they need. She reached out to the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, whose Hidden Heroes initiative is designed to recognize and support caregivers.
The foundation works city by city, rather than nationally, and Kelly Hunsucker has encouraged Mayor Michael Tubbs to declare Stockton a Hidden Heroes City.
“Public awareness can begin the hard work of finding our caregivers and seeing what we can do to help them in any way,” Kelly Hunsucker said. “A lot of times people don’t realize what they’re doing is caregiving. I never would have identified as giving care until I read the stories. I joined the Hidden Heroes Facebook community and realized we share similar stories.”
She and Josh went through a rough patch after he finished law school and his schedule wasn’t so clearly dictated.
“It was extreme chaos being at home with three kids supporting him while he studies and takes the bar,” Kelly Hunsucker said. “It was a period of, ‘OK, how do we function in this new life?’ I struggled to find my own path.”
Team RWB was a saving grace and now, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation’s work — and its website that lists supportive services it has vetted — is an additional outlet.