Sgt. Roslyn Capers, a Level 3 school safety agent for 10 years, has two excellent reasons to be interested in -- and anxious about -- the efforts of United States armed forces to bring democracy to Iraq. Her son, Courteney Wood, is a sailor aboard the aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt in the Mediterranean Sea, and her stepson, Zarod Capers, is with the 4th Infantry on his way to Baghdad.

Agent Capers said Courteney, 18, who lived with his family in Brooklyn before enlisting, has been in the Navy for about a year.

Zarod, 19, is married with two children. He already has spent two-and-a-half years in the Army and lives in Texas, where he is stationed at Fort Hood.

"He recently signed up for another five years," Agent Capers said. "He plans to make a career of the Army."

Capers, who is assigned to the Training Unit at 110 Livingston St., Brooklyn, said she follows the situation in Iraq very closely, but is not too worried about the younger youth. "He stows and he ducks," she said laughingly, meaning he knows how to be careful. "I worry, you know, but I just have to put it in God's hands and wait for the day when they come home."

She said she recently received an e-mail from Zarod, which said, simply: "I'm doing what I'm doing for your safety and for my family."

To which we should all say Amen!