In journalism, "getting the story" often means being first; for NPR correspondent Quil Lawrence, it meant waiting a decade. “Carlson’s War,” a two-part series from The Sunday Story, features ten years’ worth of conversations with a veteran whose battles continued long after the war had ended.

Back in 2015, Quil was looking for someone he could talk to for a story about incarcerated vets with PTSD. He found Dave Carlson on a scratchy phone line from a Wisconsin county jail. Carlson had done two tours in Iraq and he opened up about the cycle of addiction, theft, and DUI’s that landed him in prison after coming back home. 

That initial segment aired soon after, but Quil and Carlson stayed in touch. Carlson was released on probation, but he was struggling. Quil kept calling once or twice a year to check in, and over time, their conversations took on the knowing, intimate quality of a support group. They’re exchanges between two men who remained haunted by a war the rest of the country was trying to forget.

Quil had reported extensively from Iraq, and then turned to covering veterans’ issues. This new role led him to ask essential questions about the men and women on their way back to civilian life:

Carlson’s homecoming was marked by a sense of irreparable loss. Soldiers he had grown close to had been killed in combat, and his survivor’s guilt fueled the behavior that eventually landed him behind bars. Carlson is not alone: Veterans with PTSD often grapple with preexisting trauma, and they are statistically more likely to face incarceration.

Ultimately, “Carlson’s War” tracks a Black veteran’s long, uncertain search for peace. And yet, for all of the raw reality in the series, it’s the redemption arc that sticks with you. The first time Quil saw Carlson he was in an orange jumpsuit. Ten years later the two men are together again, but this time Carlson was in a graduation gown, accepting a hard-won law school diploma. 

It makes you want to celebrate along with them.