The Best Job We Ever Had

Why do soldiers often describe war as the best job they ever had?

Combining memoir, reportage, and interviews with veterans, The Best Job We Ever Had not only explores the purpose, intensity, and comradeship of military life. But also the enduring nostalgia many feel for a world they can never return to.

For most people, war is something to be feared and avoided. Yet countless soldiers have returned from it carrying a difficult truth: they miss it. Not the destruction or loss, but the sense of shared purpose found among those on the front line

Drawing on his own experiences as a soldier in Afghanistan and Mali, journalist Emil Arenholt Mosekjaer sets out to understand why. He does this through interviews with veterans from around the world – from the Second World War to the conflict in Ukraine – whose testimonies run parallel with accounts from military history stretching back to antiquity. Together, they reveal remarkable similarities in how warriors describe fear, courage, sacrifice, comradeship, and the experience of battle.

Blending first-hand testimony, historical sources, and contemporary reporting, The Best Job We Ever Had challenges our assumptions about war and the people who fight them. Rather than focusing solely on the wounds of war, it examines what draws people to combat, what they find there, and why many struggle to come home.

A compelling exploration of the soldier's experience across time and place.