U.S. combat soldiers at work in Afghanistan
Bestselling author Sebastian Junger is currently on a North American tour to promote the release of War, a powerful first-person account of his embedded experience with a U.S. combat unit in Afghanistan. Canadian author and war correspondent Scott Taylor contacted Junger at his Portland, Ore., hotel room to discuss the intense trials and tribulations involved in researching such a dangerous subject.
ST: Military units are close-knit by nature, resentful of outsiders and particularly distrustful of the media. You obviously broke through those barriers, and I wonder if there was a singular event or moment when you realized you were accepted by the men of Battle Company?
SJ: My relationship with those guys evolved throughout the year, and with some of them it is continuing to evolve. There was no single moment where I was "allowed in." It varied from soldier to soldier and it was the gradual accumulation of experience. They did threaten to "bleed me out" [a Battle Company hazing ritual that occurred whenever a soldier departed the forward operating base] but that never happened.
ST: I'm glad that you mentioned the inter-unit hazing and violence. Even as an ex-soldier, I was surprised to read in your account how prevalent that sort of thing was in the front-line outposts.
SJ: You need to realize that these are rough guys, and that they didn't mean it in any hostile way toward each other. There wasn't real violence; it was just a very rough kind of play.
ST: You did a great job of observing the transformation of these young men under the stress of combat. Unlike them, you were free to rotate in and out of the Korengal Valley and return home to a safe, secure world. As such, you actually put yourself through the rapid pressurization and decompression five times in just 15 months. That must have taken an incredible toll on you.
SJ: Once I was involved in this project, I became so invested in it, and so close to the men that, if anything, I had a hard time staying away from the Korengal Valley. I had a few minor emotional issues, but one thing that made it easier for me is that I'm in my 40s. My identity is pretty much jelled, my life is set and I know who I am. All the neural wiring that goes on in the brains of teenagers is well behind me now. I think that made it a lot easier for me to handle all those transitions than for some of the young soldiers. I have spent a lot more time with myself on the planet than they have, and I know myself pretty well.
ST: Nevertheless, it still takes a tremendous amount of mental compartmentalization for you to transition from a world of life and death violence, back to the safe and secure world at home in North America.
SJ: That is true, but in the case of this experience in Afghanistan I did not witness any civilian casualties. The soldiers almost never saw the enemy - even though there were plenty of them. So we never really saw the results of the violence. This was a little different from some of the civil wars I've covered in the past. When there is a lot of just raw human suffering, that leaves a different sort of imprint on you.
ST: In recent weeks, the U.S. military took the position to abandon the Korengal Valley and declared it to be of "no strategic value." Having been through so much combat, and having recorded the physical and emotional toll expended to hold this remote piece of geography, how do you think the men of Battle Company reacted to this decision to withdraw?
SJ: I think it is understood that the definition of the term "strategic value" changes over time and is dependent upon what the enemy is doing. With the constraints of limited men and resources, I think the U.S. Command decided the Korengal Valley commitment could be better utilized elsewhere. There is no question that the withdrawal decision raised some very painful emotions among the soldiers of Battle Company. However, strategic decisions are not based on the feelings of soldiers.
ST: In your interviews and observations, you make it very clear that many of the soldiers in Battle Company will have a difficult time adjusting to a life without the adrenaline rush associated with combat. Can the same be said of Sebastian Junger?
SJ: The adrenaline is a small component of a more profound issue, which is that of the group bonds. There is no way to duplicate the bonds of a combat infantry platoon back home in the civilian world. I will miss those things as well, to the extent that I experienced them in the Korengal Valley. However, I am happy to be at home. That said, I will probably be going back to Afghanistan this fall to continue reporting, but certainly not another full-scale, long-term book project.
Scott Taylor, a former soldier turned war correspondent, recently published his memoir Unembedded: Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting.
The Globe and Mail's Ian Brown interviews Sebastian Junger live on stage in Toronto on Monday, May 31, in the Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library. Details here.