Best-selling author Sebastian Junger has an explanation why young males return from war and conflict and have a desire to go back.
“They are missing brotherhood,” Junger said as he tried to describe to the Welty Gala audience the feeling of each soldier being needed by the other guys in the group.
“And then they come back, and all of the sudden they are just another guy walking down the street. It’s a form of hell and it’s no wonder they go back.”
Junger would know. He spent large blocks of time with a United States military platoon in Afghanistan.
The acclaimed author and award-winning journalist spoke to a packed Pope Banquet Hall audience at the Mississippi University for Women campus Friday night as part of the 23rd annual Eudora Welty Writers Symposium. Earlier that day, Junger spoke to a packed classroom of students who are part of MUW’s Residential Honors Program.
Junger’s most recent book, titled “War,” is a direct result of Junger embedding himself with the battle company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in the Korengal valley of eastern Afghanistan. He and photojournalist Tim Hetherington also produced the Academy Award-nominated film, “Restrepo,” from the time spent covering the war in the beginning of the century.
“I wanted to write about what it feels like to be a soldier,” he said.
While Junger discovered his passion for writing in college, success in journalism and professional writing didn’t come immediately after he graduated. The Belmont, Mass., native spent some time cutting down trees and waiting tables, until a work-related accident involving a chainsaw kept him from continuing that type of work.
He then re-kindled his love for writing by covering local fishermen in hopes of writing about and reporting on people who work dangerous jobs, similar to what he previously did. This lead to the publishing of “The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea,” which occupied the New York Times best-seller list for more than three years and later became a Warner Bros. motion picture.
The morning after he handed in his finished product, he began his journey to Afghanistan to cover a civil war taking place in the country.
The profound effect that being in a war setting had on the platoon members was interesting, Junger said. Only one guy out of the 20-something members left when they had the chance, he added.
According to Junger, there were soldiers in the group who “absolutely hated each other,” but they would risk their own lived for one another.
It was that strong bond they shared and the importance of what they were doing that kept bringing them back.
“The reason that you exist is really really clear,” the veteran journalist said to the classroom full of students. “But when you come home, the reason isn’t as clear, because you think it doesn’t really matter.”
Junger said it’s society’s duty to understand how the students felt during the conflict and understand the importance of what they did and the bonds they shared.
“We have to understand that they miss something profoundly powerful ….” Junger said.
Junger didn’t fully understand war, even after his numerous trips and many months spent in the thick of war, until he lost “a brother.”
Hetherington, Junger’s partner and colleague in Afghanistan, went to Libya in 2010 for an assignment. Junger was planning to join him, but something came up and he had to cancel. Hetherington decided to stay and work on a separate project. Junger said on April 20 this year, Hetherington died.
A Vietnam veteran, who had read and seen Junger’s work, heard about Hetherington and called the author. He told Junger that, while he was close to understanding war from his reporting, he wasn’t all the way there.
“He said, ‘The core reality of war isn’t that you may get killed. It’s that you’re guaranteed to lose your brothers … and now, Sebastian, you know everything you need to know about it.'”
The author pulled away from embedded war reporting because of what happened to his friend.
“What I’m going through with Tim, I don’t want to put through the people that I love,” he said.
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