But veteran war protesters from the Vietnam era say the young peaceniks in their footsteps worry more than they did about ending up behind bars for the cause.

"It's more of a 'police state' type thing now, where everything you do gets recorded," said Barry Freeman, 80, a Chapel Hill resident charged last month during a demonstration outside an Army recruiting office. "Kids are afraid it will be held against them and affect job prospects. That's too bad. People need to risk a little more."

Hundreds of protesters young and old from throughout the Triangle plan to rise early today, bundle up in warm clothes and board buses in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, headed for the nation's capital. People from across the country will congregate for a rally and march against a war in which more than 3,000 U.S. service members have died.

The N.C. Peace and Justice Coalition expects nearly 1,000 people on chartered buses from across the state.

Theresa El-Amin, an organizer from Durham who took part in the war protests of the 1960s and 1970s, said the bus riders will range in age from 6 to 90.

Many college students and young idealists in their early 20s are Washington-bound. So are grandparents and great-grandparents who bring a been-there, done-that perspective.

Last week during an organizing meeting in the Chapel Hill Public Library there was a clash of the experienced and inexperienced in major war protests.

Nearly 40 people huddled in the afternoon to talk tactics.

Andrew Pearson, 29, a peace rally organizer from Durham who enjoys mingling with the many generations, said Friday that it was interesting to watch the melding of ideas.

The college students would pitch an idea, such as occupying congressional offices to try to persuade key elected officials to vote against war funding.

"The gray-heads were like, 'Hey, that's great energy, but have you considered this,' " Pearson said.

In their careers and lives, many in the older generations had gotten to know congressional leaders and aides, Pearson said, and suggested organizing sit-downs, not sit-ins that might lead to quicker action.

"There was a little bit of 'Oh, you're older and you don't want to try anything radical.' " Pearson explained. "But there also was the recognition that they might have something there. By the end, both generations moved a little bit closer."

The older protesters bring an added benefit beyond their expertise, younger organizers say. Many have bank accounts that can cover the $1,500 to $2,000 fee for chartering a bus.

"They have credit cards that they're able to put them on," Pearson said.

The rally this weekend comes at a time when support for the Iraq war is at its lowest.

Sixty-three percent of Americans, according to the latest Gallup poll, are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country. Six out of 10 Americans, or 61 percent, according to Gallup, are opposed to the Iraq war.

In addition to the rally and march, many protesters plan to make a three-day event of it and drop in on congressional representatives the first thing Monday to push for a quick exit and to ask that war spending to be curtailed.

Jon Paul McClellan, 58, of Chapel Hill hopes to hear young voices mixed in with the aging baby boomers and seniors in the crowd. "Speak up, speak out," McClellan tells the youngsters in the peace movement. "Do your research. Get your facts. Contradict the lies."

Thirty-six percent of Americans mention the Iraq war as the country's greatest problem, according to Gallup.

Although no other single issue is mentioned by more than 8 percent of Americans polled this month, the percentage does not yet match the height of dissatisfaction with the Vietnam War.

Freeman, the octogenarian due in court Feb. 5 for demonstrating in front of the Army recruiting office in Chapel Hill, does not plan to make the trip to Washington. He and his wife, Janie, 71, another Chapel Hill senior charged at the demonstration last month, plan to show their opposition to the war closer to their homefront.

They will join people in front of the United Church of Christ on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Chapel Hill at 1 p.m. today.

"Think of the trillions of dollars being spent," Freeman said. "That's mindless."