On Road To Thoughts On Iraq

How is the war in Iraq affecting Americans at home, and what do they think of the conflict?

Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi is setting out to find out, in a CBS News road tour dubbed "The Home Front."

In the process, she plans to travel 3,000 miles, from South Carolina to California, and report each day on The Early Show and the CBS Evening News.

Alfonsi begins her two-week journey at the U.S. Marine boot camp facility in Parris Island, S.C.

She spends the day with a group of young recruits, mostly 18 and 19-years-old. They're about a quarter of the way through basic training.

Alfonsi asked them why, when their friends are going through college or embarking on jobs, they volunteered for the military, especially with a war on.

"There's a good chance I will see war," one recruit told her. "I'm ready to go. I wouldn't join the Marines if I wouldn't."

Another revealed his family members "actually fought it all the way until I came here. And it made it harder on me, as a person, because I broke all their hearts leaving. But in my heart, this is what I wanted to do. And I had to do it."

The recruits, Alfonsi points out, have a lot of heart, fighting through mud and mosquitoes, and being screamed at by drill instructors all morning long.

The thing that struck Alfonsi as we spoke to them is that most said they were less worried about the future, less worried about Iraq and the war, and more concerned about their families and, specifically, how their mothers were coping.