Not knowing can be tough. Especially when there’s talk of deaths. Especially when the talk is about Mainers.

After three hours of waiting by the phone, Sue Smith of Mechanic Falls learned her husband, Sgt. Robert Smith, was all right.

He was in Mosul, but he was unhurt.

An hour after the call, Smith seemed breathless with relief. “I know he’s OK,” she said.

The wife of another serviceman had passed along the news, part of a chain of family members: spouses, parents and children of the soldiers of Company C of the 133rd Engineer Battalion. The Lewiston- and Norway-based company is composed of about 150 soldiers from those areas. The battalion has about 500 members from across Maine.

Word of Tuesday’s attack wasn’t supposed to get to Smith at all. She tries blocking out the TV and newspapers, creating a kind of bubble.

On this Tuesday, though, she had to drop by her daughter’s school. When somebody asked her about Robert, she learned that U.S. soldiers in Mosul had been killed.

That was at 10:30 a.m. Until the call came from the other spouse around 1:30 p.m., she was forced to imagine what had happened. It’s something Sue Smith can’t describe.

In October, Robert was injured in a mortar attack on the base. A piece of shrapnel cut a 2-inch gash above his right ear.

“When we went there, it wasn’t bad, until they got to be better shots,” Robert Smith said of Mosul while recuperating at home later that month on a short leave. “I think their (military) intelligence improved.”

While Sue Smith knew by early Tuesday afternoon that her husband was safe, Maj. Peter Rogers, the Maine National Guard’s public affairs officer, seemed to be still in the dark at 5 p.m.

“We have nothing that we can confirm officially,” said Rogers. “We’re following developments” via news reports, said the man charged with briefing the media about battalion developments.

The 133rd Engineer Battalion remains assigned to Camp Marez, and its members typically ate at the facility attacked Tuesday, he said. Troops in Mosul have complained that the canvas-covered mess hall was a soft target for an attack by insurgents

On Tuesday afternoon, Joyce Usher and her second-grade class at Lewiston’s McMahon Elementary School knew their pen pal, Sgt. 1st Class Normand Roy of Lewiston, also was all right.

“He called his wife today,” said Usher, “so I know he’s OK”

Roy was interviewed by the Sun Journal a little more than a year ago. At that time he spoke of the dangers of war and of how he handles them.

“You have to believe in what you’re doing,” he said. “God will give you no more heartache than you can handle.”

And knowing that loved ones are waiting is a source of strength.

“You know that your family is going to be safe,” he said last year. “It will get me through.”

Two other Mainers, noncombatants, were also safe in Mosul on Tuesday.

Bill Nemitz, a columnist for the Portland Press Herald, and Gregory Rec, a photographer for the paper, are embedded with the 133rd.

Neither was in the mess hall at the time of the attack, but both rushed there after hearing the explosion.

“They were rattled,” said a Press Herald spokeswoman, but safe.

Nemitz filed reports from Camp Marez throughout the afternoon and also showed up on CNN during an afternoon interview about the attack.

Shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, Gov. John Baldacci’s office issued a brief release confirming the two Maine deaths and adding that 10 members of the battalion had been wounded in the attack.

About that time, The Associated Press was reporting 12 wounded among the 133rd’s troops.

Baldacci said his information came from the Army at Fort Drum in upper New York state.

“Our first responsibility is to the family members of our fallen heroes,” Baldacci said. “We will provide support to their families. This is a very difficult time, especially during this holiday season. As before, Maine people pull together. This tragedy weighs heavy on us all.”

Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, and 2nd District Rep. Mike Michaud offered similar condolences.

“We must ensure that they have the resources they need to perform their duties and return home safely,” added Snowe.