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Young Marines polish kids, teens
Most days, Elizabeth Capawana is busy with things you might expect for a 15-year-old. The Osborne High School sophomore goes to class, socializes with friends, rides horses and plays the French horn.

Two Saturdays a month, she takes on another persona: drill instructor.

Wearing camouflage uniform and black utility boots, she barks orders to dozens of other kids as they push their way through physical fitness tests and marching drills at the Naval Air Station base in Marietta.

Staff Sgt. Capawana is a Young Marine, one of about 10,000 in 291 units across the country. Elizabeth is in the Gen. Raymond G. Davis Metro Atlanta unit, one of two Young Marines groups in Georgia. The other is in Albany.

Little known to the general public, Young Marines accept members at age 8, and have seen their ranks swell the past decade.

Supporters say the group's emphasis on academic achievement, physical development and a drug-free lifestyle is good for children.

Critics say the organization also operates as a recruiting tool for the all-volunteer military, taking kids who are too young and encouraging them to join the U.S. Marine Corps when they grow up.

"Programs such as the Young Marines are successful because they give youth a sense of belonging and a higher purpose in life, yet I think parents need to ask themselves what that purpose is," said Marietta's Debbie Clark, a member of Veterans for Peace, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the abolishment of war.

"The primary function of the military is to be a killing machine, and it needs to attract future combatants."

Elizabeth's mother, Penny Capawana, disagrees.

"They're not like little kids in cammies playing war," she said. "It teaches them discipline, respect for the country, independence and accountability."...