[[{“type”:“media”,“view_mode”:“media_large”,“fid”:null,“attributes”:{“class”:“media-image alignright size-full wp-image-1606”,“typeof”:“foaf:Image”,“style”:“”,“width”:“100”,“height”:“100”,“title”:“”,“alt”:“The New York Times”}}]]As part of a series featuring stories of U.S. military veterans who served in Iraq, Phil Klay ’05 writes about being in Ireland with the Dartmouth Rugby Team the day President George W. Bush delivered his ultimatum to Saddam Hussein. At the time, Klay was soon to be both a Dartmouth graduate and a commissioned member of the Armed Services. He served with the U.S. Marine Corps from 2005 to 2009.

On December 15, 2011—the day the war officially ended—Klay met a friend named Perry who’d been an Army medic. “We go to an upscale bar instead of one of our usual dives and order drinks. No TV, no distractions. Neither of us knows how to mark the event,” Klay writes.

“I’ve got an unquiet memory in my head,” Klay adds. “An Iraqi family after a suicide bombing.”

“As Perry and I try to tie a bow on eight years of war, I think of how wars end, and how they don’t, and for whom,” he writes.

Read the full story, published 3/19/13 by The New York Times.