Episode Details

“Nobody cares what you know, until they know you care.”  — Eric W. Hommel 

Episode Summary 
Eric Hommel doesn’t sound like a man who spent thirty years in uniform guarding his own reputation — and that’s the point. A Cold War Navy submariner turned Air Force lieutenant colonel, he commanded a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan’s Panjshir province, where the job was to build roads, governance, and a police force the Afghans could run themselves. Instead he found himself halting a major road project because his own side was seizing farmland from 541 families without paying a cent — a violation of the very constitution Americans had helped write. 

From there the conversation opens into the machinery Eric watched from the inside for a decade: metrics that reward motion over progress, contractors who profit from problems never getting solved, and senior leaders who, in his words, “knew their jobs but didn’t know the mission.” He and Jeanne trade stories about working yourself out of a job, why real warfare is generational rather than a three-day event, and the moment he realized he was “building better thugs” instead of police officers. He’s just as blunt about himself — he was in charge, and he lost, so he calls himself a loser too. 

The most moving stretch is about what happens to veterans after the war. Eric walks through Immersive Prolonged Exposure — putting veterans back inside a lifelike recreation of Afghanistan — and tells the story of Army Captain Tyler Kurth, who had nightmares every night for seven years and stopped once he finally understood the “why” behind his service. Today Eric pours all of it into walking Arlington National Cemetery with veterans and families, telling the stories of the people buried there. And before he goes, he plays Two Truths & A Lie — a submarine ship’s diver, a Marine mortar gunner, and a set of cavalry gold spurs — and only one of them is made up. 

Eric's Bio 
Eric Hommel has lived about five careers inside one set of dog tags — Cold War Navy submariner, Air Force officer, ground combat commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, decade-long Pentagon insider, and Capitol Hill legislative liaison. He commanded a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan’s Panjshir province, where he stopped a road project cold to make sure 541 Afghan families were paid for their land. His memoir, The Losing Game, is the only first-person account of America’s failed mission in Afghanistan that ends by taking the blame himself. These days you’ll find him walking small groups through Arlington National Cemetery, telling the stories of the people buried there. 

Eric's Links
Website / Publishing: https://www.lionsixpress.com/
Vigilance Tours (Arlington tours): https://www.vigilancetours.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-hommel-21315aa/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vigilance_tours_arlington/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088709956469 

Eric's CTA 
Visit vigilancetours.com to book a personalized tour of Arlington National Cemetery with Eric — and pick up his book, The Losing Game: How to Lose a War and Fail Veterans.

Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Please let us know.
Email: info@projectcandor.com

Website:   https://www.projectcandor.com

Social Media

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ProjectCandor/
LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/company/proj