War

The men of First and Second Platoons suffer enormous physical and emotional stress during their deployment in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008. They live with the constant fear of sudden death during battle, suffer painful wounds from enemy weapons fire, complete exhausting patrol operations on foot across extremely rugged mountainous areas, and live in grueling, nearly intolerable conditions. The effects of their deployment linger for years afterward.

Attacks by Taliban soldiers almost invariably come by surprise. If, occasionally, the first bullets or rocket-propelled grenades happen to land perfectly on a US Army outpost, men can die while doing chores, relaxing, or sleeping. The gnawing terror of this ever-present possibility etches away at the men’s sanity. They respond by taking psychiatric meds, pushing the fear away, immersing themselves in preparations for the next firefight, or expressing outrageous gallows humor. Most of the men suffer from nightmares.

If one is wounded or dies during a firefight, the others will feel devastated. One soldier comments, on the death of medic Juan Restrepo, “We loved him like a brother. I actually saw him as an older brother, and after he went down, there was a time I didn’t care about anything” (237).