“Restrepo” is a new documentary that tightly focuses on a platoon of American soldiers defending a forward operating base in the remote Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan. Co-directed by journalists Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, “Restrepo” takes its title from the isolated base, which was named in honor of Pfc. Juan Restrepo, a combat medic killed during a firefight early in the platoon’s 2007-08 deployment. The film, which is playing in several cities elsewhere, opens July 30 in Austin.
The platoon — 2nd Platoon — was part of Battle Company, 173rd Airborne Brigade. Capt. Daniel Kearney commanded Battle Company and he appears in “Restrepo” not only explaining his company’s mission — and providing some limited context to a film that otherwise avoids looking more broadly at the war’s strategy and politics — but also negotiating with the valley’s elders and tribal leaders (as he’s shown doing in this photo).
Kearney, 29, is now a major currently stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia. He grew up the son of an infantry officer — the Army was “bred into me,” he says — and graduated from North Georgia College & State University, one of the country’s six senior military colleges for ROTC (Texas A&M is another). He served in Iraq as a lieutenant, leading a platoon of about 30 men, before being promoted to captain and sent to the Korengal Valley as commander of Battle Company in the spring of 2007.
I recently talked with Kearney about his experiences in Afghanistan and “Restrepo.” An edited transcript follows.
(I also recently spoke with Junger. That interview appears Sunday in the Statesman’s Life & Arts section.)
What is your current assignment?
Maj. Daniel Kearney: I work for the United States Army Special Operations Command and that’s really about all I can say.
Have you been back to Afghanistan since you were there in 2007-08?
I have. I’ve been back to Iraq and Afghanistan both. I just returned about four weeks ago from Afghanistan actually.
How have things changed in Afghanistan since your time in the Korengal?
When I was in the Korengal I was focused on the Korengal. I didn’t really know much that was going on outside of there. The biggest thing that has changed is that we’re no longer in the Korengal. (Note: The Army withdrew from the Korengal Valley in April, after five years; 42 Americans died fighting there.) I was over there when that transpired and I had some small piece in the pie of pulling out of the Korengal and getting those men used elsewhere. So it was kind of a chapter in my life that I was finally able to close the book on.
What are your thoughts about the withdrawal?
Everybody kind of feels a little bit bad that we did what we did down there and then you withdraw and you kind of, like, ask why were we there? But at the end of the day, it was never about the Korengal. It was really about the bigger mission, which was what was going on in the valley to our north, what was going in Asadabad and the larger population centers, and making sure that the government and the security could be in place there. We were in the Korengal to keep the enemy off-balance so they wouldn’t take away from what the government of Afghanistan and what the soldiers elsewhere and in Asadabad were doing. So we always knew it was going to happen sooner or later.
Would you consider the deployment to the Korengal a success?
Success is hard to define.
Let me rephrase it: Did the deployment accomplish the mission’s goals?
I think I came there with incredibly lofty goals. I was expecting to go down there and tame the valley in a few months, and 15 months later I still hadn’t completely tamed it. So I didn’t achieve everything I wanted to, but in hindsight, and throughout the 15-month deployment, I think we achieved more than we thought we were going to be able to achieve after the first couple of months.
What reactions do you have when you see yourself in the film?
I don’t know. It is what is was. I wish I hadn’t cussed so much because I don’t want young kids to see me cussing and think it’s OK. I wish that I would have sounded more diplomatic. But I had nothing to hide. That’s the biggest thing about this. Once Sebastian and Tim were there, there was nothing that I was afraid of them seeing or showing on the screen because everything we did there and everything I did there was morally and ethically correct. So I don’t really critique myself.
What would you like for viewers of “Restrepo” to take away from the film?
I hope they walk away with an appreciation for what America’s most precious resource is out there doing. It’s not their dollars and cents and their tax money; it’s the young men and women of this country that volunteer to go out there and for 15 months at a time, or 12 months at a time, they live an unheard-of life that nobody will ever understand unless they go through it. And I hope that after seeing it they kind of do understand it and they have a better appreciation for what it is those young men and women are doing, because they’re all 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds that could be back here in the States chasing girls or chasing boys and drinking and getting a college education, but they chose to go do something else, something that offered them, I guess, some kind of more meaningful existence.
Do you think the public is engaged enough in Afghanistan?
Let’s just put it this way: I am surprised at the level of people coming out to go see this movie. I never would have imagined that this many people would have been that interested in it.