War Business

The U.S. Marines were tasked with the bloodiest fight of Afghanistan: conquer Helmand Province in just two years.

Helmand was a Taliban stronghold and home to ninety percent of the world’s heroin supply. The bloody fight required the Marines to butcher Taliban in exchange for every acre, kill for each compound. The mission would only be accomplished when there was no one left to fight.

Sergeant Matthew Brunnemann spent a year fighting in Helmand Province as a U.S. Marine Intelligence Specialist. After that first deployment, he had a deep and unsettling desire to get back in the battle. Four hundred helicopter-borne raids, hundreds of tracking devices installed, and countless Taliban captured—none of it was enough. So he returned to the Graveyard of Empires, spending a total of five hundred days in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2012.

But despite his hope of finding meaning and filling the warrior’s void, he instead felt as though he lost what was left of his soul.

WAR BUSINESS is a visceral journey into the soul of a warrior. What does it cost a warrior to earn their keep? How far would you go to protect your brothers and how many lines would you blur to accomplish the mission? Brunnemann’s words are no tale of glory or romanticized heroism. His story is a raw, unfiltered narrative that captures the essence of what it means to be a warrior in the modern age—a powerful testament to the United States Marine Corps’ capacity for bravery, sacrifice, and brotherhood, and a sobering look at the hidden costs of war on the men who fight it.

Featured in defense industry briefings and veteran podcasts, this gripping Helmand Province memoir gives voice to the silent struggles of many GWOT veterans and their families, offering hard-won truths before America enters the next conflict.

Matthew Brunnemann is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Intelligence Specialist with over five hundred days of combat experience in Helmand Province, Afghanistan—one of the most violent and strategically critical battlegrounds of the Global War on Terror. Deploying twice between 2010 and 2012, including a voluntary return to the fight, Brunnemann participated in hundreds of helicopter-borne raids, opium interdiction operations, and high-stakes intelligence missions that defined the Marines’ bloody campaign to seize Taliban strongholds.

A third-generation warrior from a proud military family—his grandfather served in World War II and Korea, his uncle in Vietnam, and his brother continues to serve—Brunnemann brings unmatched authenticity to his writing. War Business: The Hired Guns of Helmand Province is his raw, unfiltered memoir that goes beyond typical war stories to examine the profound personal and spiritual costs of modern combat, the unbreakable bonds of brotherhood, and the challenges veterans face when the fighting ends.

Brunnemann is also the host of The War Business Podcast, where he continues to explore the realities of conflict, leadership, and the warrior ethos. His work has been featured in defense industry briefings such as the Oklahoma Defense Industry Association (ODIA) and veteran-focused podcasts including Mike Drop and The War Locker Show. A husband, father, and man of faith, he lives in the Central Valley of California.