Civilian Education

Ph.D. History, Georgetown University
M.A. American Studies, Georgetown University
B.A. History, College of the Holy Cross

Military Education

M.A. National Security Studies, Naval War College

Biography

Professor Packard’s areas of scholarly interest are U.S. military history, Marine Corps and naval history, the Vietnam War, civil-military relations, defense reform, and military innovation.

Professor Packard has presented his research at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting, the Society for Military History Annual Meeting, on C-SPAN, and before various other groups both domestically and internationally. In 2015, Professor Packard was awarded the Society for Military History’s First Manuscript Prize for his research on the Marine Corps’ post-Vietnam reform program. He is currently working with UNC Press to prepare the manuscript for publication.

Professor Packard is a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and a currently serving as a field historian for the U.S. Marine Corps Historical Division, Quantico, Virginia.

The recipient of academic fellowships with Georgetown University, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, and the U.S. Naval Academy, Professor Packard currently serves on the editorial board for the International Journal of Naval History as the Assistant Editor for Amphibious Warfare.

Professor Packard has taught previously at Georgetown University, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the U.S. Naval War College. He is a member of the Society for Military History.

Awards and Decorations

Coffman Prize (2015)
General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr. Fellowship (2010)
Bronze Star (2008)

Selected Publications

The Marine Corps’ Long March: Modernizing the Nation’s Expeditionary Forces in the Aftermath of Vietnam, 1970-1991, UNC Press (forthcoming)

“Repairing the Wreckage of Vietnam: The Marine Corps’ Great Personnel Campaign, 1975- 1978,” Proceedings of the 2013 McMullen Naval History Symposium, Naval Institute Press (forthcoming)

“Congress and the Marine Corps in Historical Perspective,” Marine Corps University Journal (forthcoming)

“Equipping the Marine Corps for the 21st Century, 1975-1990,” in The Means to Kill, McFarland Press (2015)

“Giving Teeth to the Carter Doctrine: The Marine Corps Makes the Case for its Strategic Relevance, 1977-1981,” International Journal of Naval History (July 2015)

Articles on Guy Gabaldon, Pierre Ortiz, Frank Petersen, and Jay Vargas in ABC-CLIO Encyclopedia on Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the U.S. Military (2013)

Review of Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War, Michigan War Studies Review (2013)

Review of Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War, Michigan War Studies Review (2011)

“One Man’s Example,” Marine Corps Gazette (December 2008)

“My Lai Remembered,” Writing Across the Curriculum III (2006)