A Bronze Star and Purple Heart Veteran Reveals the Reality of War and Recovery Like no one Before

“In life or war, you’ll die a coward by refusing to live and act selflessly. Or you can kill your inner cowardice for something greater to emerge. But either way, a coward dies.”

Washington, D.C.— America’s veterans are rightly held up as heroes and our country’s first line of defense, but how these men and women transition back to civilian life is too-often softened or ignored. In his new book Where Cowards Go to Die (releases July 5, 2022), Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient Benjamin Sledge reveals the true horror of war from the front lines and the struggle many veterans face when reacclimating to life after battle. 

While serving a portion of his time under the Special Operations Command, Benjamin Sledge fought to keep his humanity amid the killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan. But war never leaves its participants unscathed. Through brutally honest storytelling, Where Cowards Go to Die reveals an unflinchingly honest portrait of war that few dare to tell.

Stationed on a small base on the border of Pakistan in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, the young warrior returned home shattered after embracing the barbarity he witnessed around him. Haunted by his experiences overseas, he began a fifteen-year odyssey wrestling with mental health, purpose, and faith—an odyssey that eventually drove him to volunteer for another combat tour in the deadliest city of the Iraq War, Ramadi. Sledge presents his story with candid vulnerability and reveals: 

  • The reality of battle and loss of comrades on the front lines of Afghanistan 
  • The pain veterans of the War on Terror felt after Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan
  • A picture of war unlike other memoirs—revealing the darker side of combat and the brutal truth of how depraved men can act instead of solely a heroic and rated-PG account.
  • Sledge’s own decades-long search for faith and how he found it through the most unlikely of circumstances

Where Cowards Go to Die vividly captures the reality of the men and women who learn to fight without remorse, love each other without restraint, and suffer the high cost of returning to a country that no longer feels like home.

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