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

Team Never Quit

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.

Support Benjamin
Website: https://benjaminsledge.com
Book (Where Cowards Go to Die): https://amz.run/5GAb
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benjamin.sledge/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benjamincsledge/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/benjamincsledge
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