Whistles from the Graveyard : My Time Behind the Camera on War, Rage, and Restless Youth in Afghanistan

“The most bracingly honest, refreshing account of the Afghan war” (Sebastian Junger, New York Times bestselling author) from a Marine Corps Combat Cameraman and director of the acclaimed documentary Combat Obscura. This is a war story. But it is also a story of a lost generation. As an artsy eighteen-year-old from New York City, Miles Lagoze arrived in the Marine Corps surrounded by fellow millennials who were enticed by promises of stability, community, and a shot at economic security. Deployed as a Combat Cameraman—an active duty videographer and a photographer—Lagoze produced images of glory and heroism amid his fellow soldiers and the occupied Afghan people. But his government-approved footage hid a grim reality. Here, Lagoze pulls back the curtain and illustrates the grisly truth of the longest war in American history. He shows us acts of brutality on innocent people performed by young men inured to violence, desensitized by their digital worlds, and uncertain of their mission. We see soldiers and Afghan locals drawn together by the terror of the Taliban. We witness the devastating effects on those caught in the deadly crossfire. And we see a generation of American military cast out into an unfamiliar world, steeped in nihilism, and sent back home with first-hand training in extremism and insurrection. An unfiltered account of the war in Afghanistan unlike any other, this is a shocking and vivid look at a country eager to exploit its youth while also ignoring its sacrifices. A new modern classic that deserves to stand alongside Michael Herr’s Dispatches and Evan Wright’s Generation Kill.