LEWISTON – Army Spc. David Saucier was in good spirits but a lot of pain Wednesday night, said his stepfather, Mike Pelletier.

“They removed a piece of shrapnel the size of a baseball from his belly yesterday,” Pelletier said Thursday. “But he seems like he’s in really good spirits. He’s hurting, but he’s OK.”

Saucier, 22, of Lewiston was injured Sunday by a roadside bomb that exploded near the vehicle he was riding in while on patrol in northern Iraq.

He was evacuated from Iraq on Monday and flown to a U.S. Army hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, before being transferred to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he arrived Wednesday.

Pelletier said his stepson, who suffered a broken pelvis and intestinal injuries, is receiving treatment while awaiting surgery.

“He could be in there for six months, based on what they told us,” Pelletier said.

Saucier is serving with part of Charlie Company of the 133rd Engineering Battalion, based out of Lewiston. A 2004 graduate of Oak Hill High School in Wales, he joined the National Guard in 2002 while still in school.

Pelletier said Saucier was due to come back to Maine in July, after a year’s tour in Iraq.

“We wait to hear from him on the computer,” Pelletier said. “That’s the main way we keep in touch. When he’s away from the computer, you figure he’s out on patrol…we’re always scared to death until he logs back on.”

Saucier was a gunner on a truck, providing security for convoys that travel between Kuwait and Iraq. Pelletier said he didn’t know exactly where his stepson was stationed.

“He said he was headed up north, where Osama Bin Laden was – whatever that means,” Pelletier said. “He just said it was really nasty up there.”

Saucier’s truck was at the front of a convoy Sunday when the roadside bomb exploded, injuring him and disabling the truck.

“The other trucks were too far away to come right in and help, and the bomb knocked out his antenna, too,” Pelletier said. “So nobody could come to help for a pretty long time.”

But Saucier’s truck was carrying some medical personnel, who helped stabilize him while waiting for a helicopter rescue.

“He was in three different hospitals, but he doesn’t remember any of it,” Pelletier said. “The first thing he remembers, he was waking up in Walter Reed.”

His mother Rachel, brother Cody and grandmother Evelyn St. Pierre left Maine on Wednesday for Walter Reed. A group of Saucier’s high school friends went down, as well. Pelletier, who stayed home to mind the family’s cleaning business, plans to join them Saturday.