KEARNS — This month, the U.S. war on terrorism reached its 101st month, passing the Revolutionary War as the nation's second-longest conflict.
Saturday marked the seventh anniversary of the deadly war in Iraq, which affects soldiers, airmen and Marines with ties to Utah.
Politics aside, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq bring a sense of reality, of finality to their loved ones and neighbors: When you go to war, you might not come back.
In the pages of this newspaper, we've told those stories 54 times. And we're not done.
If Utah is lucky, no more servicemen will die this year — leaving the 2010 death count at two. It happened in 2008, the least bloody year for Utahns abroad. Utah lost Navy Lt. Jeffrey Ammon and Army Pvt. Jordan Thibeault that year.
But this year could also turn out to be like 2007, when the state lost 17, including Army Sgt. Larry Rougle, whose family continues to grieve.
Their story could be any military family's story.
"You don't get over it, but you learn to cope," said Rougle's mother, Nancy Rougle.
"Every time we talk about it, it gets to us," said his father, Ismael Rougle.
Larry Rougle was 17 when he joined the Army. While he was in basic training in Georgia, his high school sweetheart, Jackie, followed him there so they could elope. After he returned from a deployment to Italy, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks shook the nation, and the Army sent its best to Afghanistan in October 2001.
Larry Rougle was there.
"He was such a lifer (in the Army)," Jackie Rougle said. "He was literally G.I. Joe."
In all, he served two tours in Iraq and three in Afghanistan. It was there, in 2007, when he was ambushed in what has been called a death zone outside of Kabul. It took 10 shots to kill him. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Larry Rougle seemed to know he would die while serving. He used to tell his wife that he wouldn't live to see 30. She didn't want to believe it.
Despite her husband's death at age 25, Jackie Rougle refuses to be angry at the war. And it makes sense to her that the war should go on until its objectives are fulfilled.
"(Or else) Larry died for what?" she said. "We can't let lives be lost in vain."
The pain of losing him never goes away, and little things throughout Kearns, where Jackie Rougle lives with the couple's 5½-year-old daughter, Carmin, constantly remind her of him.
Even Carmin. Especially Carmin, with her quick wit, her lightning comebacks.
"She's identical to her dad," Jackie Rougle said. "She's a hoot."
It almost seems like God gave Carmin to the Rougles as a trade, Jackie Rougle said.
"We miss him, and we're so proud of what he did," she said. "I know that's what he wanted to do."
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