"This isn't Tarmiyah. People are waving at us!"

For those veterans of “Feb. 19,” as they call it, these final days are spent coming to terms with that battle — of retelling stories of “last time…,” “last time…” that offer a warning against complacency to their young comrades untested by war.

But they’re also absorbing the dramatic change since “last time”: the peace that has transformed Tarmiyah from a battleground to a fairly peaceful, ordinary-looking Iraqi town…

This time the journey on Coyote Road passed without incident. Tarmiyah still had checkpoints and blast walls, but stores once shuttered were open, and the main street was clogged with traffic. This time, children weren’t banging pots; instead they ran to the convoy and waved.

On the way to Tarmiyah, “I was like, ‘Who in the hell comes back to a place like this after all that?'” said Fisher. “And now, I’m like, what the hell town is this? This isn’t Tarmiyah. People are waving at us!”