(U.S. Navy photo by Jaima Fogg/released) Sean Henseler gave up his ROTC scholarship because it was interfering with college basketball.
But after playing as a 6’2” guard at Clark University and then Babson College, Henseler graduated and found himself back at square one: He still wanted to join the U.S. military.
“It took me about two months to realize that I hated my job, and I wanted to do something more adventurous -- like join the Navy,” said Henseler, who had landed in a hardware store management training program.
“My dad thought I was crazy to give up that ROTC scholarship, and then I turned around and joined the Navy,” he recalled.
That path led to sorties in A-6s as an intelligence officer, the U.S. Navy sending him to law school and eventually a Bronze Star for exposing abuse in Iraqi detention centers.
The story may make it to movie screens someday. Henseler has written a script detailing his 2006 mission to root out rampant mistreatment at Iraqi-run military jails, leading to the prosecution of more than 50 Iraqi officials.
Henseler’s involvement came in the wake of the 2004 scandal over the U.S. Army’s Abu Ghraib prison, where Iraqi prisoners were tortured and abused.
The U.S. Navy lawyer’s job was to conduct surprise visits of jails operated by Iraqi officials – who were performing possibly worse acts of abuse in the middle of the Sunni-Shia civil war.
Henseler’s team traveled to Iraqi prisons in convoys and helicopters, exposing themselves to roadside bombs and enemy fire. That’s how a U.S. Navy lawyer earned a Bronze Star.
“It was the most challenging job I ever had in the Navy, and the job where I felt I was doing the most good,” Henseler said.
His mission turned into a hunt for the proof needed to prosecute the offending Iraqi detention officials and restore the rule of law in Iraq.
“It was essentially to go around to all of these detention facilities and get detainees who had been abused and tortured to tell you their story – which was a very difficult thing to do,” he remembers.
Henseler lost several interpreters because the stories were so grim.
“When you hear a 10 or 12-year-old boy tell you all the things that happened to him – to this day it still makes me angry, more than angry,” he said.
It also still haunts Henseler that the ringleader of the Iraqi abuse managed to escape prosecution. That’s the narrative of his screenplay, called “Site 4,” which he co-authored with a professional movie writer.
After Iraq, the U.S. Navy lawyer came to Newport to teach joint military operations and operational law.
Now, after leaving active duty in 2009, Henseler is deputy dean of the College of Maritime Operational Warfare, which teaches practical large-scale planning to officers from mid-career up through the flag level.
With a pool of instructors like him, “We’ve got a very seasoned, experienced staff here who have lived what we are teaching,” Henseler said.
A Rhode Island native, the retired U.S. Navy commander has strong ties to local education.
His mother, the late Suzanne Henseler, was a high school history teacher and represented North Kingstown in the Rhode Island state legislature for many years -- including as the first female Majority Whip in the house.
Sean Henseler and his brothers still run a nonprofit foundation in her honor. The group pairs high school students with U.S. military veterans to discuss what it means to serve. It also awards college scholarship money and acknowledges outstanding teachers.
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