B Company, Second Battalion, 508^th Parachute Infantry Regiment served in the Arghandab District of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, in 2009-10. Those were two of the deadliest years in the United States’s war in Afghanistan. Along with Helmand and Kunar provinces, Kandahar was among the deadliest places in that country, and the Arghandab was the most dangerous place within Kandahar.

A paratroop company numbers about 130 men. During its tour, “Bravo” Company lost three soldiers killed in action, and twelve others became amputees among many more wounded. Add to this grim total two suicides, two homicides, and over a dozen suicide attempts by that tour’s survivors. What was it about that tour that caused so much bloodshed, even after the unit returned from war? Ben Kesling grapples with that difficult question in Bravo Company, perhaps the best book yet to emerge from the U.S. military experience in Afghanistan.