Check out this article: Parents who protested war mourn death of soldier son

As a boy, Benjamin Colgan marched with his parents in peace protests. Joseph and Pat Colgan, 62 and 60, respectively, whose activism dates from the Vietnam War, were surprised when their son enlisted in the Army. But they continued to support him, even as they opposed the war in Iraq.

On Monday, their worst fears came true. Colgan, 30, a second lieutenant, the father of two young daughters with a third child due next month, died Saturday when a roadside bomb exploded as he responded to a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Baghdad, the Defense Department said.

Word came with a knock on the door at the Colgans' home. "I saw the cross on his lapel pin and I said, 'No, not my son! Not my son!' " his mother said. "There will be many people experiencing the same thing," she added. "This war, it shouldn't be."

Lt. Colgan had recently become disenchanted with the war.

His parents were concerned when he gave a dim appraisal of Baghdad in an e-mail Friday. "What raised a red flag was when he said, 'It's getting real old and getting real crazy,' " his father said. As a young child, he had joined his parents on marches to protest nuclear weapons at Naval Submarine Base Bangor. Then, to pay for college, he enlisted in the Army after graduation from Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines in 1991. "That was hard, but you support your children," his mother said.

More from Lt. Colgan's mother:

His mother says his death has only strengthened her position against the war. "People keep asking, 'Are the Iraqis better off?'" she said. "What we have to start asking is, 'Are we better off?' And we're not. We're losing our children."

[Thanks to Ziska's John Emerson for the link]