A Maine soldier was killed and three others were wounded Tuesday when their convoy in northern Iraq was attacked with homemade explosives.

The soldiers – all members of the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion – were hit about 9 a.m., Iraq time, outside the city of Mosul.

Attacks with explosives were followed by small arms gunfire, said Maj. Peter Rogers, director of public affairs for the Maine guard.

In all, five Americans were hurt, said a spokesman from the Coalition Public Information Center in Baghdad. Three of the injured were returned to duty and two were transported to the 67th Combat Support Hospital in Mosul. One of them, a Mainer, died.

The soldier’s death marks the 100th this month, the bloodiest since the start of the war.

Word of the attacks and the injuries spread across southern Maine as the battalion’s 500 men and women called or e-mailed their families.

Family members of 133rd guardsmen described the soldier who died as attached to the battalion’s headquarters in Gardiner. He died in a helicopter on the way to the hospital, Sgt. Scott St. Pierre of Hebron told his wife, Darlene, in a phone call Tuesday night.

Another soldier underwent two surgeries for the wounds he received during Tuesday’s attack, Darlene said. Scott is based at Company C’s Camp Marez in Mosul.

Two others suffered burns in the attack, Darlene said her husband told her. All reportedly were from the Gardiner headquarters.
Calling home
Much of the news, however, was contained in two-minute calls, assuring spouses and parents that they were OK.

“I’m fine,” Sgt. Normand Roy of Lewiston told his wife, Diane, Tuesday morning. “But you’re going to hear a lot about what happened here.”

At about 7 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time, the battalion’s commander called Brig. Gen. John W. “Bill” Libby from Iraq with news of the attacks and telling him that four Mainers were hurt. By the early afternoon, the affected family members were all informed.

Word continued to spread. Soldiers’ family and friends called each other for news.

Jason Reardon tried calling his mother, Maria Whitney of Norway, three times before he finally gave up and sent an e-mail. It said he was OK, she said.

As soon as the bombing happened, leaders shut down his base, he wrote his mother, who operates Gallilee House homeless shelter in Norway. The soldiers were debriefed, then told to call or e-mail their families.

“I have some bad news and you probably have heard about it on the news already,” Jason wrote in his e-mail. “A convoy of ours, the 133rd, was hit today by a roadside bomb out in Mosul. One guy was killed and another is in critical condition. There are a few others that were injured, however they will recover.

“The guy who has died wasn’t from my immediate company,” he continued. “He was in the headquarters company, but he was in the 133rd Battalion, that’s all I can say.”

The soldiers were told who was hurt and ordered not to give out their names because families had not been notified at that time, Reardon told his mother.

The news swept through families, staggering even those who had escaped injury.

John Zadakis of Mexico recieved word Tuesday morning from the parent of another soldier. His daughter, 19-year-old Melissa Zadakis, was all right.

However, the news that people in her battalion were hurt shook him. He immediately called his wife, Linda, at work. They wept.

“I’m a tough guy, but I just balled on the phone,” Zadakis said. “We both did.”

By Tuesday night, the father was both sad and angry.

“They don’t belong over there,” John Zadakis said.
Support for the families
News of the attacks drew comments of concern from Maine’s Congressional delegation. All said they pray for the families of the soldiers.

“Nothing we say can truly honor their great sacrifice enough, and I will continue to work with the other members of the delegation to provide the support these soldiers and their families need and deserve, said 2nd District Rep. Michael Michaud.

Sen. Olympia Snowe vowed to press for details from the Pentagon about the attack while issuing her own statement of support for the families.

“They have our unyielding support and profound appreciation,” Snowe said, “and without question we need to ensure they have the resources they need to perform their duties and return home safely.

Sen. Susan Collins called the news “extremely troubling.”

“The first priority is to ensure that the families get the information and support they need,” Collins said.

Information has been spreading quickly on its own, though.

Jeanne Jones of West Paris said her husband, Sgt. Randall Jones of Company C, called her at 11 a.m. from Mosul with news of the attack.

“He said, I heard the explosion. It was bad. I thought more people were going to get killed,'” she said.

“It brings my blood pressure up. It could have been him,” said the registered nurse in the emergency room at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway. “He’s been telling me they’ve been getting those rocket-propelled grenades. They get them right over their heads.”

“They’re staying put for a while” at Camp Marez, she said her husband told her.

She said she asked him if the military was sending more troops to Mosul to protect them and was told 500 more are supposed to arrive to keep soldiers safe.

Randall Jones’ mother, Jane, of Norway said she didn’t panic when someone came to her office at the Norway Water District and told her about the attack.

“My first thing was, He should be north of Mosul,'” she said.

Jones has been hauling heavy equipment north from Mosul to a prison that is being converted into a barracks near the border with Turkey.

But that was not the case, she learned later. News of the attack, she said, “brings it all home.

“You get up in the morning and you wonder what Randall is doing, and you go to bed at night and you wonder if he’s sleeping as good as you are,” she said.

Sometimes, a little intuition kicks in.

“I woke up at 2 o’clock this morning,” Jane Jones said. “That was the time that this all happened. Mothers have that little intuition, and it’s scary. You don’t like it.”

There’s reason to relax, though, James Reardon told his mother.

“I don’t want you to get worried,” he wrote Tuesday. “Those guys could do nothing about it. We take all precautions possible and react to the best of our ability. I know it sounds bad, but I’m doing just fine.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.