Afghan Post: One Soldier’s Correspondence from America’s Forgotten War

by Adrian Bonenberger

Paperback (2014): This is my first “epistolary” and I realize now that I have been missing an entire genre of writing that is very powerful. It is a fascinating layout that provides an opening into the mind of the writer as you read letters and journal entries that document visceral emotions, documented over a period of time.

In “Afghan Post,” Adrian Bonenberger bares his deepest insecurities and ambitions as a young college graduate who wants to live a life of meaning. Trying to find companionship and purpose, he watches as some friends grow in their civilian lives and others enter military service.

Fearing that history might pass him by and judge him a coward for failing to heed the call of military service when his country was at war, he signed up to fight. Over the course of the book you witness the dichotomy of what “service” means in a modern all-volunteer army. Adrian nevertheless throws himself towards the most demanding challenges the army offers and deploys twice, serving honorably and with distinction.

For combat veterans, this will be a difficult, but healing read, as you replay back your own memories alongside Adrian’s letters and revisit emotions that have been neatly tucked away.

This is an honest, truthful read for anyone interested in our modern wars. Another reviewer was apt in calling this a “must-read” for young Lieutenants as they begin their careers.