Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Sebastian Junger

I'm a two day person when it comes to the Festival of Books. My first panel for Sunday was seeing Sebastian Junger. He was there to talk about his new book War.

The following bio is stolen from the program guide: Junger is the New York Times best-selling author of 'The Perfect Storm,' 'A Death in Belmont' and 'Fire.' He is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and has been awarded a National Magazine Award for his journalism.

Here are my notes:

He took five one month trips into the Korengal Valley.
He was with a platoon of 30-35 men.
They were attacked constantly.
The record was 13 attacks in one day.
He learned not to be a burden on others, bring enough water.
Journalist aren't encouraged to identify with military, but for one scout trip he did wear camouflage because he did not want to be a liability. For this one scouting trip, they left before dawn and came back at night and spend 12 hours not moving a muscle behind some rocks.
The book isn't about combat. It is more about courage.
As soon as you have a purpose, fear goes away.
How do intense bonds form. Welfare of the group is more important than self. If you're in a unit for months, you become family.
His fear diminished the closer he became with the group.
If one acts cowardly and the unit notices, the person will likely be sent away from the front line.
He shared certain parts of the books with the soldiers and asked for permission. These parts were about the soldiers' personal histories. He didn't want to do harm and felt it was fair. He made some changes when soldiers asked him to in regards to personal history.
Politics wasn't involved except when talking about Pakistan. The soldiers knew that Pakistan was shielding and helping the Taliban.
Believes the western world could get rid of the Taliban if it really put the effort in.
The question on getting out or staying in Afghanistan is: do you care about American soldiers or the Afghans. Mentioned that he was in Afghan in the 1990s and that Afghanistan is much safer now than back then.
When soldiers leave, they often miss the life where everything is important.

One of the soldiers he talked about was in the audience. Before the panel discussion, Junger went into the audience to talk with him and his family.