this is a special edition of "nightline." >> tonight, an inside look more than seven years in the making. at incredible bravery and survival during the war in afghanistan. >> you see him? >> the american soldiers there who experienced the brotherhood of war. plus, what happened when they came back? >> down low. we're good. >> the shocking reasons the return can be tougher than the war for these servicemen and women. it's their battle on the home front. >> this special edition of "nightline," "the other war," will be right back.

this is a special edition of "nightline." "the other war." >> good evening, and thanks for joining us. on this memorial day we honor america's servicemen and women. and tonight you're about to meet soldiers who formed a brotherhood so strong while serving in afghanistan they found nothing could replace it. a new documentary takes us inside the brutal and harrowing battles they fought so far from home. and while the fighting was tough enough, in some ways they say

coming back was even tougher. here's abc's brian ross. >> reporter: what happened in this ruggedly beautiful faraway country became known as the other war. even though more than 2,300 americans have so far died in afghanistan, in fighting as fierce and as difficult as anything ever seen by the u.s. military. >> did you see him? >> no, i don't see him. >> yeah, it's frightening. i think if anybody told you they weren't scared they were kind of [ bleep ] you. you're scared. you know that fear is there but you just put it away. >> reporter: most of the fighting and dying in afghanistan happened in remote places that few americans ever heard much about. >> down low. you're doing good. >> reporter: like the area around the u.s. outpost called restrepo, a six-mile-long korengal valley, near the border with pakistan. some 42 americans were killed in the korengal valley.

and for those who served here with them, today is very special. >> i think memorial day's a very powerful day for them. this is the day where they really think about, like my god, that guy died at 22. what a sacrifice. it's a very solemn time for them. >> reporter: over the course of more than a year journalist sebastian junger along with photographer tim hetherrington were embedded. they produced award-winning reports that aired on abc news and a feature-length documentary called "restrepo" that was nominated for an academy award. and now with american forces being drawn down in afghanistan junger has a follow-up film called "korengal" that provides a rare and surprising insight into why some american soldiers may actually wish they had never left restrepo. >> it's a giant machine gun.

what's not to like about a giant machine gun? >> soldiers miss war. what is it they're missing? i really wanted to make a film that got into the soldiers' minds and helped them and the country obviously understand what that experience is like. >> is there anything about this you're going to miss? >> shooting people. it's always fun shooting. >> is there anything you miss about restrepo? >> the6a i think a lot of us kind of miss that adrenaline. >> americans have a kind of war fatigue. but not these soldiers. >> it was the most intense thing they've probably ever done. and you know, of course they don't miss getting shot at and they don't miss having to shoot at people. but what they do miss is that brotherhood of combat. it's not replaceable back home. and i think that's the sort of secret to understanding why soldiers can miss something that's as terrible as war is. >> there's nothing else like it. >> we're getting engaged again. >> reporter: at times-w scenes set to a pounding rock beat, it

seems not unlike a violent video game come to life. >> whoo, hoo! >> fire! >> combat's a lot of things. and among other things, it's intoxicating and very high adrenaline. and those guys were jacked out of their minds in that firefight. by the same token, there's other moments in the film and in real life where you're in this sort of like, you know, moral freefall into this sort of darkness, like what are we doing? we're killing people, we're dying. >> whoo! [ gunfire ] >> for a while there i started -- i started thinking that god hates me. and like i said, i'm not religious or anything, but i felt there was this hate for me because i did sin, you know, i

sinned. and although i would have done it the same way, everything the same exact way, i still would feel this way. you know, i still -- that's the terrible thing with war. >> any honest film about war captures those two truths. it's very, very -- combat's very exciting. and it's profoundly disturbing. >> that comment, you did what you had to do, just drives me insane. because is that what god's going to say? you did what i had to do. good job. punch you on the shoulder and say welcome to heaven? you know. i don't think so. >> reporter: the mission of american soldiers in afghanistan over the last 13 years was to go after the taliban and al qaeda, considered vital to national security. for these soldiers that meant leaving the protection of their hilltop base and heading down to the villages below to win over

the hearts and minds of the villagers. >> when we left the wire, most of the guys were scared, and what was going through their mind was hopefully i don't get to die today. you know, hopefully i live to see another day. >> they're going to talk to you guys -- >> reporter: but junger's film reveals the seeming futility of the mission and the contempt in which each side regarded the other. >> we come in, they're going to take what they can get from us, and then as soon as the taliban comes in they're going to give them what they want, but they're a little more scared of those guys than us. so i think they played both sides and they'll be fine to your face but in the end they're just kind of in the middle trying to survive. >> you know, this whole going there and act like they're friends thing doesn't work. hearts and minds is out the window when you see the guy shooting at you and then he puts his wife and kids in front of him knowing full well that we won't shoot back. >> women and children up on the roof.

>> or the guy who shakes our hand, takes the ten bags of rice we give him for his family, the school supplies, and immediately walks through the mountain, shoots an rpg at us, walks back down and smiles at us. [ bleep ] his heart. [ bleep ] his mind. >> reporter: the u.s. withdrew most of its forces from the korengal valley some four years ago. junger says in the minds of american commanders the mission at restrepo served a larger strategic purpose in stabilizing the area and holding the taliban at bay, even if the soldiers in the korengal valley didn't always see the bigger picture. >> once you're out there, you know, your country's an abstraction. once you're out there, what you're really doing is fighting to survive and help your brothers survive. and that's really it. and i think that's been true for millenia. i think the greek soldiers at the walls of troy didn't really care about helen. right? they were fighting because they were there with their brothers and that's what was happening.

>> and some of the most telling moments in junger's film come in between battles, waiting for the next mission or the next attack. >> i've been hit! >> what does courage mean? i would ask them that. like what does courage mean? what's it mean to be brave? >> bravery to me, as an example would be something along the lines of someone who goes out of their way despite the very likely potential of dying and risking his life to, you know, protect another one. >> we didn't talk about that word very much because we didn't feel what we were doing was bravery. >> every single person that got shot over there, they didn't worry about themselves one bit. all they asked about was how are my guys? sergeant rice when he got hit, he's like where's my team at? is solo okay? is jackson okay? is vandenberger all right? sergeant padilla lost his arm.

his arm was missing. he had shrapnel in his face. and he was just asking if everybody was okay. that's bravery. >> sergeant first class cortez, unwavering courage, aggressiveness, and leadership while under fire were decisive to his company defeating an enemy attack. private first class cortez's performance reflects great credit upon himself, task force bayonet, combined joint task force 101. >> how'd that feel? >> awesome. >> yeah? felt good? >> felt good. >> you guys looked proud up there. >> of course. we accomplished something. we got recognized for this. i'm happy. >> you didn't start crying or anything. >> no. i'm not sentimental like that. i don't break down. i'm a soldier. >> but there were times when they did break down. when the tears flowed. >> yeah, they're all trying not to cry. and of course they fail. yeah. it's very powerful. >> reporter: when we return on this memorial day special edition of "nightline."

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we return to our profound story 1 abandon of brothers formed in the war in afghanistan. four american soldiers say they became family while struggling to maintain faith in their mission and fight for their very survival. so why did so many of them say they miss it? and how did they learn to cope with the grief? abc's brian ross takes us back into a journey of hope. >> reporter: journalist sebastian junger and his partner

tim hetherington put their lives on the line to report from afghanistan, spending more than a year with the soldiers of battle company in an outfit post called restrepo. >> we both were almost killed out there. tim broke his leg in combat. i got blown up by an i.e.d. we paid our price too. and i think by the end the guys were open and honest with us because we'd been through an awful lot of this with them. >> reporter: as junger portrays in his new documentary, "korengal," the american soldiers formed a brotherhood that ironically left many feeling empty when they left afghanistan. >> did you have your own withdrawal? did you miss it when you came home? >> i missed the guys. you know, i'm 52. i'm starting to get over the combat thing. but i missed the guys a lot. in a weird way, as dangerous and scary as it was out there, it was also one of the happiest times of my life. and i think it's true for a lot of those guys too. >> how so? >> there's no stress. like no e-mails to deal with, no bills to pay, no fights with

your girlfriend. no real life to deal with. it's very simple. just stay alive. tim called it a sort of paradise for men in a weird way. it's like none of the hassles of real life and all of this male bonding, which is pretty intoxicating to men. >> tim hetherington had his own intoxication with war. >> i need to get close to the action. that's as a cameraman in combat you need to be close to where it's at. >> if hetherington himself was scared he never showed it. on this mission with battle company the soldiers got word the taliban were tracking them as they pulled back to their base at night. >> it was a sense that we were now going to be hunted. and that was not a great feeling. >> reporter: as the shooting began, hetherington kept rolling, steady as always through the chaos of battle. >> and we ran up to the ridge, expecting there to be fighting. and instead we came across the scene of the scouts and a part

of 2nd platoon that had suffered casualties. >> reporter: and the grim discovery involving a beloved company leader. the men were distraught. and as close as he was to them, hetherington did not hesitate to do his job as a journalist while the platoon leader got his men back into the battle. hetherington's work with junger in afghanistan won wide acclaim and is seen again in this latest documentary. but soon hetherington was on his way to his next war, libya, where at the age of 40 he was killed. his partner, junger, was devastated and learned a painful lesson about war and loss. >> i was supposed to be with him on assignment, and last minute i couldn't go. personal reasons. and then he got killed. i twisted it around in my head, i should have been there to help him, save his life. or protect him or -- i know, it's not even rational. but i was -- i mean, an enormous component of ptsd is survivor

guilt. and i'm still -- i can get incredibly emotional out of the blue, out of nowhere. i think i'll probably have that my whole life. >> reporter: so junger treats with special care how the men of battle company dealt with their grief. >> they take responsibility for the tragedies that happen to their brothers. and they live with it their whole lives. that's one of the reasons soldiers don't want to talk about war, is they'll end up crying at the dinner table. and most grown men don't want to cry at the dinner table. you know what i mean? so they just avoid the whole topic. >> reporter: the restrepo outpost was named for one of the company's medics, juan restrepo, killed in action valley. when the soldiers said good-bye to him, they struggled to hold on and find a way to somehow move on. >> is it a good thing this place has been named after him? yeah?

>> 14. >> restrepo. pnc juan restrepo. pfc juan restrepo. >> ready, aim, fire. ready, aim, fire. ready, aim, fire. >> just upset. like before -- this information how you want to be buried, who you want to be notified, and how you want your memorial. you can pick out what songs you want played. so we were really upset, and all of a sudden the song "i will survive" comes out in spanish. and he requested that if he died. and we just start laughing. ♪

>> our thanks to brian ross for that report. "korengal" opens in theaters on may 30th. and we'll be back with another look at memorial day tributes. hey, buddy? oh, hey, flo. you want to see something cool? snapshot, from progressive. my insurance company told me not to talk to people like you. you always do what they tell you? no... try it, and see what your good driving can save you. you don't even have to switch. unless you're scared. i'm not scared, it's... you know we can still see you. no, you can't. pretty sure we can... try snapshot today -- no pressure.

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throughout the day across the country a wave of patriotism. remembering those who served and those we've lost. countless communities parading in honor of our nation's veterans, paying tribute to those who returned home safely and those who did not. in arizona raymond murphy remembering her husband william, who served in world war ii. and in fort worth, texas a 7-year-old cub scout placing flowers, moving his grandfather to tears. >> it meant that he cared.

about so many people giving their lives for our country. >> reporter: that grandfather, a vietnam vet. at arlington national cemetery, remembering those who've fall nen more modern wars. this former army sergeant, anthony brown, remembering his best friend, sergeant scott kirkpatrick. they fought together in iraq. in new jersey a mother honoring her son, ryan ianelli, who served in afghanistan. even on the field, in atlanta today, braves players standing side by side with current men and women in uniform. and across the nation children paying respects and giving thanks. and of course tonight we salute all of our men and women in uniform. thanks for watching abc news. we hope you enjoyed your memorial day holiday. be sure to tune in to "good morning america" tomorrow. they'll have the very latest on that tragic shooting outside santa barbara. and we will have a full report tomorrow night on "nightline" as well. as always, we're online at abcnews.com.

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