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Lee Crews enlisted in the Marines in 1988, the year many of today's recruits were born.

It's a little jarring, Crews said. But after being in combat with those young service members, Crews has nothing but respect for the newest members of the military.

"Older adults think the younger generation doesn't have the same values," Crews said.

But he said he saw Marines he still calls "kids" upholding the example of veterans Crews esteems from the world wars.

"I see a lot of 18-year-olds have the same moral values and a lot of the kids live up to the older generation," he said.

Crews, 36, of High Point, joined the Marine Reserves when he was 18. He was activated during both the Gulf War in 1990 and the initial U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"It's one thing for me to be 36 and go through it, but to be 18 years old ..." Crews said.

Crews said after returning from his tour in Iraq, he has a new appreciation of the comforts of life in America. He said he and most of his colleagues bought houses, got married, and had children after returning from the Middle East.

"I just want to put my American flag on the door on the Fourth of July, cook hamburgers and just enjoy life," Crews said.

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Thomasville resident Linda Embrey 's son is serving his third tour in Iraq.

"I pray every day for all of them," she said.

The mother of a paratrooper who has been more in than out of combat and lost many friends since 2002, Embrey believes she is helping her son by collecting items for care packages for wounded soldiers and their families. It is part of how she deals with her own fear for her son.

"The fear is always there, but I just want to make a difference." Embrey said. "I just want to help the ones who are coming home."

Her home in Davidson County was overrun with the boxes in May - big ones filled with teddy bears for soldiers' children and smaller, flat-rate boxes for sending hygiene items abroad and to Fort Richardson, Alaska, where her son is stationed.

When Embrey, a nurse at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, sees things she things soldiers might be able to use, she can't help but buy them, whether it's 25 backpacks or 50 T-shirts on sale.

"A week just went by and it snowballed and snowballed," Embrey said. "If I had $1,000 more, I would spend $1,000 more."

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Men in Walt Williams ' family have been represented in every American war, and he thinks military service is a responsibility of citizenship everyone should be willing to undertake. At least he thinks that now.

"In high school I was more into art, tennis, basketball," said Williams, 33, a National Guard soldier who is a graduating senior economics major at UNCG.

But now he proudly serves in the same artillery unit that his grandfather was in years ago.

"It has given me discipline and self confidence that I can do whatever I want if I put my mind to it," Williams said. "Except intermediate microeconomic theory."

Williams' most meaningful experience in the military is one of his earliest: in 1999, immediately after finishing training, Hurricane Floyd made landfall in North Carolina and he was activated to help.

"I just had so many people thanking me for what we were doing," he said.

Williams plans to attend Officer Candidate School in November.

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"I know my husband is over there fighting a war, but I've fought many a war here," said Lisa Hendrick , a mother of five who lives in Oak Ridge . Her husband, Mark Hendrick , an officer in the North Carolina National Guard, was deployed to Kuwait in June 2006 and she has been at home with three teenagers and two elementary schoolers.

Hendrick, 44, used to joke that having her husband away wouldn't affect her life at all. "I do everything anyway," she said.

"I'll never say that again," Hendrick said. "My husband does a lot."

Hendrick found herself lonely once the bustle of her household calmed at night.

She said she wishes the people who offer help by saying, "call us if you need anything," would be the ones to pick up the phone. What many families need is to know that people are thinking of them, as well as their soldier.

"There is support out there," Hendrick said. "A lot of time the support is for only the husband and the children and the spouse is left with the burden."

But for two weeks in June, surrounding their oldest daughter's graduation, Mark Hendrick got to come home on leave. Lisa Hendrick said everyone's mood had been different with him gone, but she hadn't noticed the change until his return put the difference into stark relief.

Now, Hendrick said, "The family is just back."