AUBURN – Cathie Norris supports all the American troops deployed in Iraq, but the mother of a son serving in the U.S. Air Force said that does not mean she thinks they should be there.

Norris of Buckfield voiced her opposition to the war Wednesday during a roundtable discussion with other mothers and grandmothers of active servicemen and women. Jim Rassmann, who credits John Kerry for saving his life in Vietnam, was invited to meet with the group.

Norris said her son, Corey, told her recently he had volunteered for duty in Iraq and would be shipping out in January.

“I don’t support this war,” she said. “I support the troops.”

That sentiment was echoed by most of the nine women who sat around the kitchen table at the home of state Sen. Neria Douglass, D-Auburn.

Norris complained that she has been misled and misinformed by the Bush administration about U.S. military objectives and progress in Iraq, she said.

“That’s why I’m supporting Kerry and that’s why I’m here,” she said.

Although she said she believed Bush invaded Iraq for “the wrong reasons,” Sheila DesGrosseillers of Auburn said it is still important to show support for the troops. That includes her son, Todd, who is serving in Iraq as a major in the Marine Corps.

She gave Rassmann a yellow ribbon lapel pin, like the one she gave Kerry running mate John Edwards when she met him Sunday at a Lewiston “Town Hall” meeting.

A registered Republican for 33 years, Rassmann said he felt compelled to switch parties earlier in the year to vote for Kerry in the primary in Oregon, where he lives.

The retired law enforcement officer volunteered for the Kerry campaign to do whatever he was asked, he said.

He said he supported Bush’s decision to attack Iraq at first, just as he backed the Vietnam War when he enlisted.

He argued with his friends that the U.S. military had to have known the location of weapons of mass destruction.

As with the Vietnam War, he since changed his mind.

“Needless to say, I was very, very wrong and I’ve had to eat crow,” he said. “I don’t like to eat crow.”

Rassmann said he trusts Kerry to do the right thing in Iraq.

Kerry was a respected military leader in Vietnam and would be again, Rassmann said.

“John stood out because he was smart. He took the initiative because he had a lot of courage because people trusted him. And his people were very loyal to him.”

Those are the qualities needed in a commander-in-chief, Rassmann said.

“John is someone I have tremendous faith in. I trust him implicitly.”

Kerry, who skippered a Swift boat in Vietnam, pulled Rassmann onto the bow of his boat under enemy fire.

Rassmann said this campaign was his first foray into the world of politics.

“I could not idly sit by and do nothing,” he said. “I feel that we have a man in power in the White House who doesn’t have a clue what it means to be a leader. He doesn’t understand the concept of command responsibility. And therefore he has put all of our people in jeopardy.”

The women said the gathering gave them a chance to meet each other, many for the first time, and support each other for the duration of the war. They also shared information about the best Internet Web sites and how to get phone cards to their children.

Connie Lyons of Oxford has two sons, one just back from Iraq and the other possibly headed there.

“I think we need some changes,” she said.