Living Through the Horrors and Aftermath of War Through the Works of Phil Klay
By: Zach Strayer
Tags: Mental, Veterans, Review, Short, War

Living Through the Horrors and Aftermath of War Through the Works of Phil Klay Zach Strayer Follow Apr 25 · 4 min read

Photo by Rob Pumphrey on Unsplash

A soldier pre-deployment and a soldier turned war veteran are two completely different people; even if they’re the same person leaving and coming home. The mental tattoos that the horrors of war engraves into a soldier are something that you’d have to be blind to oversee the existence of. Yet society will never fully be able to understand the damage that it inflicts beneath the surface.

Phil Klay is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. Who shines light through a small window into the depths and trepidations of war. While some authors pound out story after story seeking nothing but monetary gain, Klay chooses to publish a dollar rather than one hundred pennies; publishing only two collections of short stories thus far, receiving countless and highly aspired awards. The “Redeployment” collection brings into perspective the disconnect from soldiers and civilians following their time in combat and the struggles of everyday life once a veteran. While his collections of short stories “Missionaries” and “Left Behind” are more centered around the imperfections of the United States’ support for their troops.

The “Redeployment” collection of short stories brings the readers directly to the front lines of the war in Iraq, challenging the readers to attempt to understand what happens during and after events that take place. In these stories, the themes of survival, helplessness, guilt, and fear are evident throughout the brutally honest short story and it puts a whole new perspective on the intricacies of the mental turmoil of combat. It begins when Sargent Price, a Marine Corps sergeant, and his platoon is burdened with the unavoidable shooting of dogs who are eating human corpses. He reflects on his experiences collecting remains — of both U.S. and Iraqi soldiers. The story then develops into Sgt. Price as he tries to settle back into a normal lifestyle post-deployment in a suburban area. He transcribes the difficulties that his relationship with his wife went through and was damaged possibly beyond repair. Although they attempt to heal the relationship, their efforts only seem to be having the effect a bandaid would have on a bullet wound. He portrays the guilt of a soldier and the effect that war has on relationships back home. It almost seems to depict these tribulations in a justifiable way, but in reading his works you learn that nothing will ever be able to capture the true experiences overseas. It’s an emotionally heavy piece of work that quickly captivates its audiences through the brutal honesty that bleeds through in his writing style. The way that Klay describes the events that take place, there is no buffer between the horrors and the pages. What happened is what is written. Klay makes no effort to desensitize his experiences for his readers. Doing this, it has allowed him to be a very captivating and successful writer. The readers are easily susceptible to engrossment in the short stories with the raw and unfiltered writing style, being brought to a place that isn’t even shown in movies.

Klay’s debut novel and newest publication “Missionaries” was released in October of 2020. A group of Columbian soldiers prepare for a mission to infiltrate a drug lord’s safehouse along the Venezuelan border. The novel begins with four soldiers and their experiences in war. It then delves into tactics and what is found in battle. This fictional novel is much like Klay’s previous works of “Redeployment” but instead of the storyline being centered around the tribulations of war itself, it’s centered around the ideologies and support from the countries behind the soldiers. It examines the globalization of violence and war through the stories of four characters, two American soldiers and two Columbian, and their experiences in combat that will define their lives forever. “Missionaries” is not the only publication that Klay has made that has pinpointed the issues of the U.S. diminishing support for troops on the ground and overseas either.

In his works of “Left Behind” he delves even further into the issues pertaining to the U.S. government and their support and actions behind the soldiers. The short stories dive into the diminishing morale of U.S. soldiers and how little justification there is within the U.S. government as to why they’re sending troops where. He explains that even though support is easily found through meaningless materialistic objects throughout the general society, there is a vast lack of moral support. Klay writes, “If the courage of young men and women in battle truly does depend on the quality of our civic society, we should be very worried.” In the depths of “Left Behind” the reader is given a glimpse of the horrors that lie within the battlefields, much like “Redeployment” has much success in doing. The reader is shown what it means to be “brothers through war” and how the soldiers put aside their personal differences to work together as a collective unit. Klay assesses the changes that soldiers go through during and after war, and how much of the U.S. government needs improvement through a soldier’s point of view.

Many experiences that soldiers go through in battle can only be experienced primarily and never recreated through words. The mental turmoil and emotional changes that they go through can only be understood by those who have gone through it first-hand. This being said, the challenge of transcribing these events and feelings for an audience, a majority of whom will never begin to feel the weight of such trials and transformations that occur, is near impossible. But Klay’s efforts in doing so don’t go unjustified and he succeeds in tackling this challenge for us all to experience and learn from. His works are more than worth your time to get lost within the words. The different perspectives and outlooks on life that it brings to the reader are second to none. Not only are his works enjoyable, but also very mind-opening.