Les Carroll
Les Carroll grew up in South Carolina, served in the Air Force and Air National Guard for twenty-eight years, and retired in 2013.
He served two tours in Afghanistan and one tour at the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center at Dover Air Force Base. This Troubled Ground was created out of those experiences. He is an award-winning military and civilian journalist and acclaimed documentary filmmaker.
His documentary Bringing the Fallen Home aired nationally on PBS affiliates in 2014, and statewide in South Carolina every Memorial Day weekend since 2014.
He wrote and published three books in the mid-1990s.
Come with me on this journey
So many times at Dover or in Afghanistan, I asked myself "am I really here? Am I actually sitting with Afghan journalists at a TV station in Kabul, or sharing bottled water with Afghan shepherd boys in the valley regions of upper Kabul Province?
How did I end up on the Dover ramp in the middle of the night in sub-freezing temperatures, standing at attention only a few feet from family members of the fallen Soldier/Sailor/Airman/Marine whose remains will come off this C-17 in a few minutes?"