To know more about Helen Benedict, you may look at her Columbia profile, Facebook page or check her personal website. Find articles on Women and War as well as The Lonely Soldier by Benedict here. 

Helen Benedict considers herself to be an anti-corruption advocate. Her interest towards soldiers’ experience spiked when she heard a young man talk about “the bad side of war” after serving in Iraq. Interestingly enough, at one of the soldier reunions she attended to, Benedict met two young women who served in war and were out in combat. “” They felt that the glory of soldiers was never given to women and Benedict chose to listen those who were “a bitch, a hoe, or a dyke” in the military.  Unintended Benedict found out their traumatic experience with sexual assault in their jobs and gave them what they needed most, a voice.  

In order to put together The Lonely Soldier Benedict tells us that she interviewed about 40 soldiers. But for any piece of work the main characters who tell a story need to be articulate. Among those 40, Benedict was able to find 5 dynamic women with traumatic stories who at the same time brought as much variety as possible to the book. These women were chosen to project the reality that occurs to almost anyone in the military.  

As Benedict describes the interviews of the many women she encountered at their hometowns, she recalls the effects of war that would show up as they talked. Some became silent, some started to shake, some cried, and some joked to cope. They all had to deal with war even as they recounted their stories. Taking their experiences into account, Benedict did not push their silence “I did not want to re-traumatize these traumatized people.”

To get soldiers to open up, and get the truth of their experience, Benedict asked to have stories repeated and focused on veterans. She also was aware that she could not get trust or create a relationship with these people by asking uncomfortable questions, and so, daily routine inquiries on their jobs usually brought to light what was going on in their lives. At the same time as an outsider, Benedict saw that these women were able to open up with her after keeping their experiences to themselves for so long. Gag orders and ‘don’ ask don’t tell systems’, prevent soldiers to speak up, oftentimes creating stress that they have to deal within themselves. 

As Benedict research started, she wasn’t aware of the dangers of serving as a female. She also did not understand why would women enlist during war, and later found that their backgrounds were very influential. One of her first purposes with this intense “digging,” was to understand women roles as there hasn’t been a time in which so many women were part of our military.