Coastal Carolina University professors Ken Townsend and Paul Olsen, who were recently embedded with U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, will talk about their experiences in a program titled "Forgotten Faces of War: Afghanistan" on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m., at Coastal's Waccamaw Higher Education Center. The discussion is free and open to the public.

This is the fourth event in Coastal's "Unheard, Unseen, Unsolved" dialogue series, sponsored by the Board of Visitors of Coastal's Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

The professors visited American troops in Kabul for 15 days during the summer of 2006, embedding with a military unit in Kandahar. Their presentation, which includes a slide show of Olsen's photographs, is based on their personal observations, experiences and interviews with American, Canadian and Afghan troops. They will discuss the impact of war on soldiers and civilians and the curious realities of modern war seldom addressed by the mainstream news media.

Olsen, a CCU art and photography professor, is a veteran of the Vietnam War. He earned a bachelor's and master's degree in fine arts from the University of Miami. He has worked as an art director for several advertising agencies, and previously taught at Mississippi University for Women and Columbia College in Missouri. His photography has been exhibited around the U.S. and abroad.

Townsend, a history professor, joined the Coastal faculty in 1989. He earned a bachelor's degree in history and political science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a master's degree and Ph.D. in American history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of "World War II and the American Indians."