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Social media is abuzz with U.S. military veterans posting their photos and memories of the first day of Operation Iraqi Freedom, when U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003.

Camp Pendletons 1st Marine Division was part of the drive from Kuwait up into Iraq, and the San Diego cruiser Bunker Hill was one of the U.S. warships that fired Tomahawk missiles toward the Iraqi capital.

The Navy posted a video of the Bunker Hill unloading its Tomahawks that day.

The war began with airstrikes before dawn on March 20, 2003. By the time the U.S. military pulled out of Iraq in December 2011, nearly 4,500 Americans and more than 120,000 Iraqis had lost their lives.

A military region, San Diego shared in the pain: 68 service members who hailed from San Diego died in combat -- most of them during the first half of the conflict.

Another 389 of the dead were stationed here, most at Camp Pendleton, according to a U-T analysis of data from the Pentagons Statistical Information Analysis Division.

Fourteen years later, some veterans are sounding off with pride that they served.

Veterans are remembering friends they served with. We will never forget, said the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America in a Tweet.

Joe Plenzler, a former Camp Pendleton Marine who is now a spokesman for the American Legion, posted a photo of himself with now-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, in Iraq. Mattis was in command of Pendletons 1st Marine Division at the time.

Others commented on the wars utility and cost.

Others noted that U.S. troops are still in Iraq.

A few thousand American troops are in an advise and assist role, trying to help Iraqi forces defeat the jihadist group known as the Islamic State, or ISIS.

That behind-the-scenes effort still has been deadly for U.S. forces.

As one person on Twitter noted, Temecula resident Louis Cardin, a Marine Corps staff sergeant, was killed in northern Iraq just one day short of the invasion anniversary last year.

Were you there, 14 years ago today? Post your memories in the comments below, or on the @sdut Facebook page.

What do you remember most about that day?

Welcome to The Intel, a blog examining the hot military news of the day

jen.steele@sduniontribune.com

Facebook: U-T Military

Twitter: @jensteeley

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Post your memories: On this day, Iraq war started 14 years ago - The San Diego Union-Tribune