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

“How it feels like” - 11/17/2011

Transcript

I just had the feeling that my country is in two decade-long wars, and that there was real, social good in spending a lot of time with one unit and trying to explain to people in this country what it‘s like for those guys.  Not politically, not strategically—all those arguments and discussions that happen, that need to happen, they‘re great.  But I wanted people to know what it feels like to be a 20-year old man in combat for a year, how it affects him, why he misses it when he comes home, what he‘s scared of.  I wanted to explain those things so that when these guys come home,we have some sort of basis of understanding of what they went through so we can get them back successfully.  I felt there was a real good in that and that‘s worth a certain amount of risk.