Benjamin Sledge: Award Winning Author of Where Cowards Go to Die and Combat Wounded Veteran

Nov 30, 2022, 11:00 AM

In this week's Team Never Quit Podcast, Marcus has 11-year combat veteran and Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient, Benjamin Sledge in the studio. Benjamin served in Iraq and Afghanistan, earning 2 Army Commendation Medals. He lost his best friend in combat. These days, Benjamin is a viral writer, graphic designer, and author of Where Cowards Go to Die where he reveals a brutal portrait of war and the cost of returning to a country that no longer feels like home. He travels around the country educating businesses, non-profits, and churches about veterans’ mental health issues.

In this episode you will hear:

  • I got to see the best and worst parts of war. Often times we were the first ones in the door, so we either made friends or got shot.
  • I was 21 when I first got to the battle, thinking “I literally have no idea what I’m doing.”
  • There’s a very distinct smell to death. It’s like rotting meat dabbed with knockoff CK1 cologne.
  • Many combat veterans don’t necessarily come home with PTSD; it’s moral injury. It’s the physiological damage that occurs when you violate your sense of right and wrong.
  • Seeing death from that close does something to the mind. It became a real struggle point for me.
  • When I first got home, they didn’t know how to handle me, because I didn’t know how to handle myself. I was drinking myself silly, so I could get the images out of my head.
  • The strangest thing happened to me – I found myself missing war. 
  • My wife left me while I was in Iraq.
  • War really is a spiritual experience.
  • What does it look like to live a courageous life and carry that into career and family relationships – Never give up, never accept defeat, and never leave a fallen comrade behind.
  • Inside every man, there’s both a warrior and a poet.
Subscribe
Next
Mike Shoreman: First Athlete with Disabilities to cross all five Great Lakes
Top episodes