Opinion: My memories of serving in Iraq feel like relics of someone else’s life. Except one

On Veterans Day, I can’t help but think of my time as a young Marine in Iraq. I could never have imagined then what my life would be like now. The war consumed my whole world back then, and now my memories of it feel like the relics of a life someone else lived.

My life is easy now. I sit in an air-conditioned office, sleep in my own bed every night, and unlike during my time in Iraq, the threat of death and violence are not ever-present — lingering just around a corner.

A few weeks into my deployment in Ramadi we were patrolling with…