“Maybe a lot of people haven’t had that power, in a sense, you know… that literal feeling and ability every day to take a life or have it taken… There’s kind of no limit to what you might be willing to do to, I mean, to keep yourself alive or your friends alive.”

War stories are like clickbait, as a society, we want to ask the questions—click the headlines—but are we ready to hear the honest answers? Josiah Ching, a Hawaiian native and Iraq war veteran, is ready to tell his story.

From shouldering the responsibility to do what it takes to survive, to shouldering the burden of then surviving, a soldier’s re-entry to the world they left behind is a lot to endure. Some can’t bear it. The lucky ones, like Josiah, find ways to cope. After the war, Josiah started fly fishing for bonefish and it saved his life.