In August, Brian and Shellie Starr of Snohomish received a final message from the son they lost on Memorial Day. In plain view on a desktop computer returned to the United States by 22-year-old Cpl. Jeff Starr's fellow Marines was a letter he had composed for his girlfriend. It was to be read if he did not return. "Obviously," he wrote, "if you are reading this, then I have died in Iraq." On his third deployment to Iraq since the war began in March 2003, Starr was well-acquainted with war's horror and uncertainty. Starr rubbed shoulders with death in April...