It wasn't the blue-black starkness of Antarctica that left the most indelible impression upon Mateo Rebecchi during his four-year hitch with the United States Coast Guard.

It was the way people around the world reacted when they understood he was part of the U.S. military.

"Leading up to the [Iraq] war, I didn't realize how many people around the world were protesting it," Rebecchi said last week. "There was a lot of protest internationally - in Japan, a lot of places in Europe too. A lot of people had a magnifying glass on U.S. policy in Iraq. They were very critical of U.S. policy in other countries."

Rebecchi grew up in Hollister, the son of two local teachers. He graduated from San Benito High in 2001. After attending a community college in San Diego for a while the Coast Guard began looking pretty good.

There were talks with the recruiting officer, of course. But more important was the chance to make a contribution, something his parents, Margaret and Larry Rebecchi, instilled in each of their three children.

"One of the reasons for joining the Coast Guard is that I wanted to serve my country," Rebecchi said. "I didn't want to fight in Iraq. I'd hoped to protect our coast instead of working on ships and sending them overseas to fight this war."

Today Rebecchi is a student, attending community college in Seattle. But, like other members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, he's been on the road as well.

In Seattle, the chapter promoted its own Winter Soldier event and more than 800 people showed up on May 31. "We just wanted the public to have access to our accounts and eyewitness testimonies," he said.

The group is also active around Fort Lewis, an enormous military reservation near Tacoma, Wash., south of Seattle.

"We're trying to do different things in the area," he said. "We encourage active duty military to come out against the war."

It is Rebecchi's sense of duty that propelled him into the anti-war movement.

"I've always wanted, when I got out, to speak out for vets," Rebecchi said. "I feel that, as someone who served in the military not actually having gone [to war] myself but who's seen people who maybe aren't able to speak out, perhaps because of their medical status, that I have something to say."

"I hope I can help inspire people in communities, so people can come together and try to bring an end to this war. If we can get enough people, eventually they can't just turn a blind eye."

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