Ross Berkoff wants to redefine the service of the roughly 750,000 U.S. veterans who fought in Afghanistan over 20 years. The former U.S. Army captain was with the 10th Mountain Division from 2003 to 2007, when the unit suffered some of the heaviest casualties of the war in Afghanistan.
“Veterans Day has become a bit of a solemn day for us,” he said. “For me, it's a day to reconnect with other veterans. I'll call a buddy that I haven't talked to in a while and check in on them, or I'll get that call that I wasn't expecting.”
In the public’s mind, the war is often defined by its outcome four years ago, when an abrupt pull-out of the last American forces left a vacuum that was quickly filled when the Taliban seized control. That perspective puts a strain on American veterans, Berkoff said.
“I mean, watching that unfold on the news, it was like watching part of our lives unravel for me and for many of the veterans that I served with,” he said.
Seven members of his unit died over 25 months when he was there. At least four members of his former unit have since died by suicide, including his friend Nick Pilozzi, who died in 2022.
“A lot of Afghanistan vets are searching for, ‘what did it all mean?’” Berkoff said. “You know, ‘how could this be the final chapter of America's longest war?’ That really broke me, because I knew what he was feeling, that sense of disconnection, that sense of betrayal, disillusionment, and this haunting question that pervaded everything: Did our service even matter?”
Berkoff had offered his combat diary to use as background for the book and the 2019 film Outpost. It’s the story of Outpost Keating, which a small element of the 10th Mountain Division defended against a deadly attack from the Taliban in 2009. But he hadn’t reread his diaries himself until after Pilozzi died.
“I think the war needs to be defined by what we did there,” he said. “What we did for each other, what we did for the American people. We prevented another 9/11 type attack against the United States for 20 years. That ought to account for something. We built schools and wells and we forged these friendships with the Afghan military, in some of the hardest places that you can do so on this Earth.”
Though Veterans Day remains complicated for U.S. veterans of the War in Afghanistan, Berkoff said this year is a little easier. His daughter wrote an essay about his service. It has been picked as the winning essay among middle school students for the Veterans Day Essay contest, sponsored by the Virginia War Memorial.
“She talks about — in her own words — how hard it was for her dad to leave his family behind for so many years, to bear the responsibility and burden of protecting soldiers that were in my command, knowing full well that there was a very good chance harm might be coming our way on any given operation,” he said.
The former Army intelligence officer was originally surprised that she chose him to be the subject of her essay.
“She also talks about how going to war is not just about combat operations,” he said. “I liked that message, that it's also about building up the people that you're there to serve and protect.”
Berkoff’s book “Beyond the Outpost: An Army Cavalry Officer’s War Diary on the Frontlines of Afghanistan, 2003 – 2007” debuts on Veterans Day.
