The uncertainty of his son's situation and his own memories of service during Vietnam, has put Molina in the anguishing position of being against a war that his own son is fighting in.

Molina proudly wears a Marine XXL shirt out of respect for his son, who attended Sunnyvale schools as a youngster, but is currently serving with the Second Battalion of the Seventh Marine Regiment.

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the war and the Vietnam-era veteran's son is among the new wave of soldiers replacing those already in Iraq.

Molina recounts the common paths he and his son have taken in life.

When Molina was 19, he joined the US Army and ended up serving in Korea during the Vietnam War. He remembers the harsh treatment of soldiers returning home.

Molina—who said he became an anti-war protestor after his service in the Vietnam Era—said he is proud to see that some lessons have been learned in the past 30 years, especially the treatment of soldiers by the general public. After Vietnam, soldiers attempting to walk tall out of pride in their own service were spit on in their homeland.

"We got no respect, that's why I'm glad they're getting respect from the everyday guys on the street," Molina said, remembering his son shaking hands with complete strangers when they saw him in uniform.

"I don't really believe in this war, because I believe we went in it for the wrong reasons, but I would never, never, put down the military," Molina said. "My son is still serving his country, and that's something I think—in the end result—is a positive thing."

Molina believes strongly in service to his country, a feeling that he has had much of his life. When he enlisted in the US Army, he was slated for duty in Vietnam but at the last minute, he was sent instead to South Korea, where his experience with personnel processing work was needed.

Looking back on the move, he said he is lucky that he avoided duty in Vietnam because of the death, destruction and damage that was wrought on US forces there, something he hoped his son would have been ably to steer clear of.

"It was the luck of the draw for me," Molina said. "But now my son is in a combat zone."

His son, Carlos, enlisted in the Marines in February 2001 after graduating from high school. He was 18. At the time, before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the idea of service in an active war zone like Iraq was a small one, so Molina said he did not try hard to talk his son out of service.

After boot camp, Carlos spent time in the Philippines, tracking Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim terrorist group with ties to al Qaeda, and his own stint in South Korea training with the Republic of Korea Marines. On Feb. 11, his unit from Twenty-nine Palms was sent to Iraq. His parents now hear from him whenever he gets a chance to call or write, and they're excited to hear that amid stories of troop movements and attacks, the boy they raised asked them to send him his Playstation video game console.

His son's deployment to the Middle East brought back memories of Molina's own service and the soldiers he trained with, especially regarding the political division growing at home over the war.

"More and more, as we got deeper in it, I saw a 'Vietnamization' and history repeated itself," Molina said. "That's a terrible history to repeat."

Molina said he has participated in anti-war protests in Sacramento recently, and said he did it not out of hatred for troops but out of wanting his son to return home safely.

He says he and his son share similar views on the war itself, as well as a drive to do what is asked of them to the best of their ability, whether they are asked as students, soldiers or professionals.

"That's what life is all about, roads and avenues and the paths that we take," Molina said. "We're all different, and that's what makes this world good."