Sebastian Junger

American author, journalist and documentarian, most famous for the best-selling book The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea, his award-winning chronicle of the war in Afghanistan in the 2010 movie Restrepo, and his 2010 book War.

“Restrepo” - 11/17/2011

Transcript

 was the platoon medic.  He was born in Colombia, the country of Colombia, an immigrant to this country.  I think that is worth noting today.   With all of the conversations about immigration, we should remember that people who have immigrated here are dying for this country.  Just throw that in there.  Restrepo was the platoon medic, and they were on a routine patrol down to a village called Aliabad(?). He was hit in the jaw and throat, and he was bleeding out.  And since he was the medic, there was no medic to treat him.  So he was in the middle of this firefight -- they were ambushed pretty badly -- and he was telling the guys around him how to save his life.  They couldn‘t do it, and he died.  He was just beloved within the platoon. He was just a great guy, and everyone loved him and he died and it was just devastating. I think the main trauma of war -- at least for the guys I was with -- wasn‘t almost getting killed; it was the loss of their friends.  The grief of losing their friends transcended, I think, every other trauma combined out there