Ed Gundersen understood that American soldiers could be in Iraq for a long time to come.

That was what happened in Germany and Japan after World War II. Korea as well, after the armistice. Generations after the fighting ended, U.S. troops remained in all those places.

So as Gundersen's unit, the 142nd Military Intelligence Battalion, arrived in Iraq shortly after the initial invasion in spring 2003, it wasn't hard to imagine that his country might maintain a long-term presence there.

But he didn't envision it happening like this.

"I always thought that, if we were successful, we would have someone there for decades," Gundersen said. "I thought we'd be working in an advisory role, a symbolic role. But not in combat."

Seven and a half years after the first American fighting men and women blitzed into Iraq, President Barrack Obama declared an end to combat operations in that still-volatile nation, fulfilling a promise made by his predecessor to "stand down" as Iraq's government "stands up."

The 50,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq will work to train and support that nation's forces in anticipation of a complete withdrawal by the end of 2011. And the fighting between Iraq's bitterly divided political and sectarian factions is likely to continue for many years to come.

That's not victory, but it's not defeat, either.

And amid the ambiguity, some former U.S. commanders of U.S. in Iraq are having trouble seeing Tuesday's largely ceremonial event as anything more than another step on a winding, uncertain road they helped pave.

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Iraqis get 'their turn' • As then-President George W. Bush stood before a banner reading, "Mission Accomplished," Gundersen's soldiers spread out across Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction, hunting for leaders of the former regime and evidence of war crimes. Those were the kinds of things soldiers do after the fighting ends, said the Utah National Guard colonel.

Hindsight is 20/20, it's true, but Gundersen said he often wonders what would've happened if his unit had been given clearance to perform one of its primary responsibilities: vetting former Iraqi military commanders for leadership roles in a new Iraqi army.

Instead, Gundersen said, military leaders were sent home, without paychecks, and told that — as former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party — they wouldn't be eligible for a job in the new government.

"Many of these men, we had asked them to lay down their arms — to walk away — and they had done that," Gundersen said. "Then we told them, 'We don't trust you.' I think that made things harder for us."

But even if he doesn't agree with every decision made higher up the chain of command, Gundersen believes that the broad outcome of the war has been opportunity for the people of Iraq. And although it came much later than he expected, Gundersen said he's pleased that the Iraqis now have "their turn"

"It's amazing, when I look at those people, I see such patriots," he said. "With all the ethnic and cultural issues at play, they're trying to keep it together. They're trying to build a future for their country."

And, Gundersen said, he's proud to say he and his soldiers had a hand in that.

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"Things were getting tough" • Budd Vogrinec was there to witness a major milestone in Iraq's history. On Oct. 15, 2005, millions of Iraqi men and women defied snipers, mortars and suicide bombers to vote in a referendum on whether to ratify the nation's proposed constitution.

The document was roundly approved — though some provinces dominated by Iraq's minority Sunni population voted in nearly unanimous opposition — and sparked an ever-expanding drive toward sovereignty for the Iraqi government.

As Iraq took one more step in that general direction on Tuesday, Vogrinec looked back with pride at the role his soldiers played.

"At the time we were there, you know, things were getting tough," said Vogrinec, a Utah National Guard major who led the 115th Maintenance Company in southern Iraq.

The unit — which provided security at Camp Duke, near Najaf, and convoy support for humanitarian missions, in addition to its maintenance role — faced little opposition. But Vogrinec was ever wary of the increasingly deadly sectarian fighting spreading across the nation.

"I worried about my soldiers all the time," he said. "Every time a convoy would leave the wire, until it came back, those soldiers were constantly on my mind."

They still are. Vogrinec said he worries about the tens of thousands of military members that will remain in Iraq during the next 16 months with decreasing levels of support around them.

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Making "their lives better" • It didn't take long for Jeff Burton to realize that U.S. forces would be needed in Iraq "for a good long time."

As commander of the 1457th Combat Engineers Battalion, Burton saw firsthand the devastation that had been done to the nation's water systems, sewers and power grid by decades of neglect, war and looting.

While the members of his battalion weren't the divinely protected warriors described in one e-mail about the 1457th that has circulated among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Burton said his soldiers have a right to be proud of what they accomplished in Iraq.

"We built bridges, roads and soccer fields," he said. "We tried to add value to their communities — to make their lives better in some way."

Now, the Utah National Guard brigadier general hopes that the people of Iraq will continue to fight to improve their nation — on their own terms.

"I'm hopeful that they step up and take advantage of the opportunity," he said.

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"A long way to go" • Lorraine Januzelli is feeling optimistic about that. Her unit, the 128th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, arrived in Iraq in 2008 in the wake of three years of harsh fighting — a time of rebuilding and reconciliation bought, in part, by a surge of U.S. forces into a war that many believed to be a lost cause.

She remembers an overwhelming sense of concern among U.S. military leaders in January 2009 that Iraq's government wouldn't be ready to handle the responsibility of providing security for the provincial elections.

"They didn't do it our way," the Army Reserve lieutenant colonel said. "We had to let them do it their way. And you know what? They managed all the security, and there weren't any attacks on that day."

Mark Campbell, who also led a unit in Iraq in 2008, had come to the war-torn nation expecting he would have to guide his Marines through a brutal deployment in one of the nation's most dangerous places.

Early into the mission, sporadic clashes with Anbar province insurgents appeared to confirm those fears. But in the waning months of the deployment, one of his biggest problems was keeping his Marines focused on safety at a time in which the level of violence had fallen dramatically.

"There's still a long way to go and a lot of work to be done," said the former commander of the Utah-based Charlie Company of the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. "But there really is a sense of accomplishment. I think that none of us would have predicted it would have taken all these years, and I wouldn't go so far as to say, 'Mission accomplished,' but, obviously, we've taken some steps in the right direction."

mlaplante@sltrib.com