Sebastian Junger "Last Patrol" and Survivors Guilt

Sebastian Junger's 'Last Patrol' Closes His Chapter on War, Looks at Life Outside Combat
ABC News
By JUJU CHANG, MELIA PATRIA and LAUREN EFFRON
Nov 5, 2014

Sebastian Junger's "The Last Patrol" documents his walk from Washington, D.C. to New York City along Amtrak railroad lines. Junger, pictured right, was joined by veteran Brendan O'Byrne, left, and photojournalist Guillermo Cervera, center. HBO

“Soldiers come back from a very unified experience where no one cares if you're gay or straight, or Republican or Democrat, or Harvard educated or your dad's in prison. No one cares, right?” Junger said. “And then you come back to America where we're completely politically divided and economically and racially divided society, and I think it's appalling to soldiers who encounter that back home when it didn't exist in the front lines.”

For the better part of 20 years, journalist and author Sebastian Junger covered the adrenaline highs and the soul-crushing lows of combat in war zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan.

Junger embedded for nearly a year with the 173rd Airborne, fighting the Taliban in the Afghan valley of Korengal. He and the late war photographer Tim Hetherington risked their lives to bring “Nightline” incredible battle footage in 2007 for a joint project with Vanity Fair. Their report and footage went on to become the Oscar-nominated documentary “Restrepo,” named after a platoon medic killed in battle, as well as a follow-up documentary, "Korengal."

Hetherington died in yet another, different war -- he was killed in 2011 by shrapnel while covering the conflict in Libya. He was 40 years old.

Hetherington’s death was a turning point for Junger.

“Because Tim died I was never going to cover war again,” he told “Nightline.” “I was done. I got out.”

While mourning the loss of his dear friend, Junger discovered a chilling piece of old footage Hetherington filmed while the two were on a train from Washington, D.C., to New York. That’s where his newest HBO documentary film, “The Last Patrol,” begins.

“When we found that clip on his hard drive it was absolutely heartbreaking and chilling,” Junger said.

“Tim was killed in Libya in combat and on a trip that I was supposed to be on, and I couldn't go at the last minute, and it left me with a lot of complicated feelings.”

In the footage, the two talked about taking a trip following America’s railroads. Watching the tape, Junger said, “I felt incredibly guilty, that I should've been there with him, maybe I could have saved him, maybe it should have been me instead of him. I felt like I had abandoned him and failed him.”
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