A display of jubilance from the "gunner." Just seconds later in response to the query "How does it feel to be in Kuwait?" issued by a reporter standing on the ground, the soldier definitively replied, "AWESOME!" In a fitting end to Operation New Dawn, taking place in the morning hours of Dec. 18, 2011, the final crossing of U.S. forces from Iraq took place just after dawn and provided a visible end to one of the longest chapters in U.S. military history. During the 8 years and 9 months spent in Iraq, more than one million U.S. service members took part in myriad missions across Iraq.