An interesting look at the war in Afghanistan. The boredom and the fear that comes with war. It's an interesting read, I've also seen Restrepo too which was good. This has been the only book I've read about the situation in Afghanistan, and whilst it doesn't go into the history of why the US Army are based there, it details the trivialities of day to day warfare and the horrendous impact it has on it's soldiers.

Occasionally a well-meaning person will ask me “what was it like in the Marines?” In an expansive mood, I’ll usually ramble something about toxic masculinity, the 95:5 ratio of tedium to adrenaline, or the petty tyranny of bureaucracy. But this book (and Generation Kill) are the truest voices of my experiences in sum. The soldiers in WAR - including the journalist author - endured or inflicted orders of magnitude more trauma than I experienced, but their motivations, bonds, aggression, and coping methods are rawly universal. What follows is mostly favorite quotes, to minimize the same misplaced and insufficient rambling I’ve done about my own experiences.

It was worth reading if only for its colorful summaries of combat psychology:

“The idea that you’re not allowed to experience something as human as exhaustion is outrageous anywhere but combat. Good leaders know that exhaustion is partly a state of mind, though, and that the men who succumb to it have on some level decided to put themselves above everyone else.”

“Civilians understand soldiers to have a kind of baseline duty, and that everything above that is considered ‘bravery.’ Soldiers see it the other way around: either you’re doing your duty or you’re a coward. There’s no other place to go.”

“What the Army sociologists…slowly came to understand was that courage was love. In war, neither could exist without the other, and that in a sense they were just different ways of saying the same thing.”

"[Afghanistan is] where the men feel not most alive – that you can get skydiving – but the most utilized. The most necessary. The most clear and certain and purposeful. If young men could get that feeling at home, no one would ever want to go to war again, but they can’t. So here sits Sergeant Brendan O’Byrne, one month before the end of deployment, seriously contemplating signing back up.”

“War is supposed to feel bad because undeniably bad things happen in it, but for a nineteen-year-old at the working end of a .50 cal during a firefight that everyone comes out of okay, war is life multiplied by some number that no one has ever heard of.”

“Maybe the ultimate wound is the one that makes you miss the war you got it in.”

But the book’s real substance lies in Junger’s unsparing and minute documentation of the men he was embedded with. The peculiarities of in-group/out-group dynamics of young men in a lethal environment are uniquely intense (and some of my fondest memories).

“The guys are experts, of a sort, at being funny, and they seem to go out of their way to be. Maybe it’s the only way to stay sane up there. Not because of the combat – you’re never saner than when your survival is in question – but because of the unbelievable, screaming boredom.”

“…if you deprive men of the company of women for too long, and then turn off the steady adrenaline drip of heavy combat, it may not turn sexual, but it’s certainly going to turn weird.”

“The only thing that matters is your level of dedication to the rest of the group, and that is almost impossible to fake. That is why the men say such impossibly vulgar things about each other’s sisters and mothers. It’s one more way to prove nothing can break the bond between them…"

“Not all the humor involved gutting your friend’s personal dignity. Donoho would pretend to see obstacles on night patrols and climb over them so he could watch the next guy in line try to do the same thing. Money ate a two-pound bag of tuna in one sitting just to see what would happen. O’Byrne and Sergeant Al fashioned a tarantula out of pipe cleaners to slip in my sleeping bag.”

The book is much more substantial than the above quotes, but those, for better and worse, made my memories vivid in his retelling. This helped me deeply remember why I enlisted, and why I left.

Read for school. I'm sure it would be great for some, just not me.

Only book I have read so far about the actual war in Afghanistan. Nothing to do with politics here, its the actual troops on the ground and what the face on a daily basis. Definitely eye-opening. It is not all lone gunmen and/or suicide vests. The author speant a good deal of time embedded with the troops. Recommended for anyone looking for info on the type of fighting going on and how the troops deal with it.

Junger was embedded in a company in Afghanistan. He gives an accurate account of what actually happens in war. He also looks at the psychology behind it. Worth reading for anyone interested in psychology, combat PTSD.

I heard this book was an amazing non-fiction story of a soldier's fight in Afghanistan. I attempted to read it, and I got why people like it. The writing style is gritty, real, and personal.

However, after 30 pages, I decided it wasn't for me.

This is an well written account of a year long deployment in Afghanistan. Junger does an excellent job relaying what it is like to spend a year in a war zone (lots of boredom occasionally interrupted by moments of terror and excitement). This is not just a book that recounts the events though. Junger peppers it with historical information about how men react in combat (both physically and psychologically).

On a side note, I'm currently serving in Afghanistan and I recently ran into members of the unit that Junger covers in the book. The people I spoke to said the book is accurate and highly recommended it. As do I. This is one of the best books covering modern combat and the men who take part in it.

An excellent first-hand account of the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Junger spent five months embedded with soldiers deployed in the Korengal Valley, the most dangerous place in the current wars with Afghanistan and Iraq. He maintains a neutral journalistic viewpoint, implying no opinion on the validity of the war, however his depiction of what the soldiers endure on a day to day basis as well as the losses suffered both in lives and mental health do much to raise questions about the cost-benefit for America's ongoing presence there.

The only problems I had with this book: Other than a simple map in the front of the book, there are no pictures and/or illustrations. I would have loved to have photos of the area since Junger references them constantly. Too, I always appreciate having faces to put to the names of the men in the stories.

Also, Junger sometimes goes into a level of detail about various missions and firefights that cause my eyes to glaze over. While fascinating, it becomes very hard to follow since it is a highly physical thing that is better seen and virtually impossible to describe. By the end, I tended to skim over details about specific action-heavy events.

And lastly, I would have loved a final, follow-up chapter that documented where these soldiers are today as well as acknowledge that the US decided to pull out of the Korengal Valley early in 2010, adding further questions to why we were ever there in the first place.

Overall, an excellent read that really helps bring the things these men have to endure to light.