BAGHDAD, IRAQ — This week marks five years since the start of the war in Iraq, making it one of the longest foreign military engagements in U.S. history.

The change in perceptions of the war has been as great in magnitude as its length. The initial invasion's shock and awe, and the 85 percent approval ratings that followed for President Bush, long ago gave way to new narratives of administration missteps, a bloody insurgency and rising numbers of Iraqi and American dead. A more macabre milestone is expected this month or next: 4,000 U.S. military fatalities.

Photo courtesy Jeremy England (ENLARGE)

Lt. Jeremy England, retired. England, 29, who was a lieutenant platoon leader in 2003 and left the Army to become a homebuilder in Mobile, Ala., has come to question the war.

ROBERT W. GEE/Cox Newspapers/STF (ENLARGE)

Sgt. Maj. Jose Mercado. Five years ago, Mercado was 1st Sergeant of Charlie Company, its highest-ranking enlisted soldier. He was a platoon sergeant during the 1991 Gulf War. He is currently serving again in Baghdad, this time as a sergeant major.

ROBERT W. GEE/Cox Newspapers/STF (ENLARGE)

1st Sgt. Jabari Williams, who is serving his third tour in Iraq.

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It is through this prism that memories of an invasion once hailed as a mission accomplished have been recast. But those who were among the first wave of U.S. troops in Iraq on March 20, 2003, recall the defeat of Saddam Hussein with pride.

The tanks that led the American march into Baghdad were from Charlie Company, first Batallion, 64 Armor of the 3rd Infantry Division, based at Georgia's Fort Stewart. Five Charlie Company soldiers recently recalled their experience, and spoke of how they feel about it now.

'I just want the soldiers to come home.'

Jeremy England, 29, who was a lieutenant platoon leader in 2003 and left the Army to become a homebuilder in Mobile, has come to question the war.

"The reasoning behind the war from the beginning was flawed," he said.

"We probably would have been just fine not going at all. Now that you're there you've got to make a commitment."

Still, he said, "I'm all about the soldiers. I just want the soldiers to come home. Bring 'em home."

He said his new career as a small-business owner is much more complicated than being a soldier, but he considers his experience five years ago in Iraq to be the defining moment of his life.

"I was very proud of what I had been through there. We had gone and we had fought the war and we had done it well and we had survived," he said.

"I think about it every day."

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'The guys knew how to kill.'

Jabari Williams, then a staff sergeant, led soldiers in prayer before they crossed the Kuwait-Iraq border in the predawn fog in March 2003.

It was also a pep talk: "This is all what we trained for. We're ready now. This is for real," he told his fellow soldiers.

"It was game-on from that point," he recalled recently in Baghdad, where he is back for his third tour.

"I was proud. I knew from that point forward, we were going to make history."

Within Army ranks, and especially in Iraq, soldiers tend to view their mission with tactical goals in mind, insulated from broader political and moral questions.

Williams appeared indifferent as to how history may judge him.

"I'm not big on politics but my measure of level of success is taking all my guys to Iraq and bringing all my guys home," Williams said.

The unit of 79 soldiers did not lose a man. Two suffered serious injuries. Eight soldiers were awarded Purple Hearts. They overwhelmed their adversary, killing untold numbers of Iraqis in a series of battles, including the two so-called thunder runs into Baghdad, the decisive assault on Iraq's capital.

"As master gunner, I was confident the guys knew how to kill. I was proud and excited to see how it would go," said Williams, 31, of McDonough, who has been promoted to first sergeant and is still serving in the same battalion.

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'It was like the war was over.'

Brett Waterhouse is back in Iraq fighting a war he and his fellow soldiers thought they had won five years ago.

A platoon sergeant in 2003, he said it was the calm after the invasion that sticks in his mind, and the rapport with friendly Iraqis.

"It was just like going to see family, except we had tanks," Waterhouse recalled of his visits to Baghdad homes days after American forces secured the Iraqi capital in early April 2003.

Charlie Company operated checkpoints, including one at the entrance to an affluent Baghdad neighborhood in what was to become the Green Zone, the fortified center of the city where diplomats, journalists and international relief agencies are based.

Neighborhood residents often came to greet the soldiers with gifts of food, sweet tea and flowers, he recalled.

"We took it all and ate well," said Waterhouse, 40 and a first sergeant, originally from Gainesville, Fla. "The whole time we were there it was like one big family. ... It was like the war was over."

Considering the warm reception, he said, "I didn't think we'd be back in Baghdad."

The U.S. administrators who moved into Baghdad reversed early gains, and the soldiers who replaced his unit, he said, "screwed the rapport we had" by treating all Iraqis as enemies. But now, he said, the war "seems to be going in the right direction."

Still, he and his fellow soldiers are doing much the same thing today as they did five years ago, and often with less success: trying to provide the country with security, and working to gain the trust of Iraqis.

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'Everybody comes back different.'

Five years ago, Jose Mercado was first sergeant of Charlie Company, its highest-ranking enlisted soldier. He was a platoon sergeant during the 1991 Gulf War. He is serving again in Baghdad, this time as a sergeant major.

Of his nearly 27 years in the Army, he said of the 2003 invasion of Iraq: "That's No. 1."

"That is the Super Bowl. Every soldier wants to go to combat. Most of them want to go to combat because of the movies they've seen — the way Hollywood portrays it."

Often overlooked, he said, are the long-term psychological effects of intense combat.

"You're not thinking about the killing, the innocent people you will kill and the aftereffects it will cause you when you come home. You aren't the same," Mercado said. "Everybody comes back different. It changes you completely."

During war, fighters suppress emotions in order to survive, he said. "It's taking me all of this time still. I would say I've gotten 50 percent of my emotions back," Mercado said.

Mercado, 45, who grew up in New York and Puerto Rico, said he plans to retire from the Army next year. His son, Jonathan, is in the Air National Guard, and his daughter, Melissa, serves in the Coast Guard.

He defended the decision to invade Iraq — "It was worthwhile. We did the right thing," he said.

He has gained a sense of mortality, he said, and a new perspective on the everyday challenges he faces at home. Everything, he said, is "a small problem (compared) to being shot at."

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'I want it to end.'

Roger Gruneisen graduated from West Point in 2001, served as a lieutenant and platoon leader in 2003 and returned in 2005 for a second tour in Iraq. In June 2006, he left the Army as a captain.

Charlie Company's two other platoon leaders also retired from the Army, underscoring the military's woes in retaining officers with combat experience.

Gruneisen's daughter was born during his second tour.

"It's a lot of mixed feelings. I would have a hard time leaving my daughter now," said Gruneisen, who lives in Lexington, Ky. "Seeing the 3rd (Infantry Division) patch back there now you get a little feeling of guilt. But I did two year-long tours."

He said he still follows news of the war, wondering whether he will know U.S. casualties.

"I just hope that we can leave there with some stability knowing that some of those guys died and it actually meant something. Not that it will ever be completely worth it," he said. "Mostly I want it to end so I can get on with my life and stop following it."