Kesling, Ben

Ben Kesling writes for The Wall Street Journal, focusing on domestic security and issues faced by veterans. He has a master’s in divinity from Harvard Divinity School, attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and previously served as a Marine Corps officer in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Bravo Company: An Afghanistan Deployment and Its Aftermath (Abrams Press), Kesling tells the story of the war in Afghanistan through the eyes of a unit of men that’s part of the parachute infantry regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. Bravo Company follows them from their initial enlistment and training through deployment a decade ago and what has happened since as they returned to combat in other units or moved on with their lives as civilians – or tried to. By the time Bravo Company made it home, three soldiers had been killed in action, a dozen more had lost limbs, and an astonishing half of the company had Purple Hearts. Since then two more died by suicide, more than a dozen have tried to end their own lives, and others admit they’ve considered it. Bravo Company is a powerful and insightful account of a war that didn’t end for these soldiers just because they came home.