In 2004, David Bellavia’s U.S. Army unit, an infantry bat­talion known as the Ramrods fought and helped win the Battle of Fallujah, the bloodiest episode of the Iraq War. 14 years later, Bellavia got a call: he had been awarded a Medal of Honor. The news was not welcome. Bellavia had put the war behind him, created a quiet life for himself, and lost touch with most of his fellow Ramrods, who were once like brothers to him. The first time they gath­ered as a unit after the war was at Bellavia’s medal ceremony, that may have saved them all. As they revisited what they had seen and done in battle and revealed to one another their journeys back into civilian life, they discovered that the bonds had not been broken by time.