A Marine's Choice, A Mother's Conflict (Loses Son-She's Antiwar)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/specials/homefront/miller_article.html

The memory remains vivid in Tracy Miller's mind: She is stepping carefully over the guys sprawled out on her living room floor, doing her best not to wake them as she heads toward the door.

The one whose legs are sticking out from under the coffee table is her son, Nicholas Ziolkowski. The others, none of whom bothered to use the blankets she offered, are the Marine Corps buddies he brought home for the weekend from Camp Lejeune, N.C.

She gently closes the door of her Towson home and heads to the District, where the protest against the invasion of Iraq is underway. When she arrives, thousands have jammed the Mall, from the Capitol almost to the Washington Monument.

The chants, the speeches, the subversive mix of indignation and mischief all remind her of her college days, when she marched against the Vietnam War.

<snip>

It is 6 one morning last November, a few days after Nick was killed by a sniper's bullet in Fallujah at age 22. She starts the day with one more memory.

What is this "young marines" program? Sounds suspiciously like an indoctrination camp to me.