Vets:

Since returning from his tour of duty in Iraq, Ben Mayer hasn’t been eager to talk about his experiences.

Stationed at Balad, or as Mayer refers to it “Mortar-ritaville,” anxiety grips him when anyone asks about his time overseas. That made a public forum at his school, UCI, an odd place for the 24-year-old Tustin resident to open up.

“I have always been apprehensive doing too much about the military outside the military,” Mayer said. “But I felt many people have a misunderstanding on what soldiers do.”

When a professor approached Mayer about having a public forum with other student veterans, Mayer helped put it together with the help of the on-campus organization, the Veterans Student Union.

Six student veterans — five men and one woman — fielded questions Thursday at UCI’s campus from a full house of students, faculty and community members. They talked about the war in Iraq, racism, mental health, politics, education, and even bumper stickers.

“Support policies that are in our best interests,” Marine veteran Thomas Sim said, perhaps hinting at his own slogan following a discussion about “support our troops” bumper stickers.

Some of the slogans have gotten politicized and miss the point, the vets said. To them it’s all about helping people — troops and civilians.

“We just need to think about the human condition,” said Erik Christensen, who was a part of the 101st Airborne deployed in 2003. “I think we need to be there for the people.”

The discussion touched on the G.I. bill, military conditioning and culture clash, among other topics.

“I had a one-day crash course,” Marine veteran Kevin Chiao said about his education on Islamic culture before being deployed to Iraq. “I was told I was not going to come in contact with an Iraqi anyway because I am a helicopter guy.”

Chiao said he had to learn the differences between various Middle Eastern cultures, such as Pakistanis working in Iraq, for his protection, but also for the people’s safety because confusion could be dangerous, according to Chiao.

Others, mostly those from Army divisions, said they spent a number of hours a week learning about culture and customs before they were deployed.

These differences and the various experiences were intended to educate the public that, contrary to popular opinion and in spite of their similar training, military personnel have different opinions, perspectives and lifestyles, Mayer said.

“No. 1 thing to address is, I felt, characterizing soldiers, a G.I. — government issue — as just pawns, if you will, that we all agree about the war or anything in general, when we represent a cross section that is a broad array of society,” Mayer said. “We all wear the same uniform, but the people underneath it all have intelligent opinions and shouldn’t be characterized as the same.”

VETERANS VOICES

“Educate yourself. Know what’s going on in the world. Be an informed voter. Vote.”

Erik Christensen

Army veteran

“Congress gets an accurate half picture. They see what they want to see.”

Thomas Sim

Marine veteran

“It’s the second America. There are a lot of American civilians and third-country nationalists [in Iraq].”

Ben Mayer

Army veteran

“You took an oath. [The Marines] own you.”

Kevin Chiao

Marine veteran

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.