Editor’s note: Capt. Paul Bosse and Squad Leader Nicholas Theriault deployed for a year-long tour in Afghanistan on Dec. 5. They’ve spent three weeks training at a National Guard base in Indiana and get a short break home for Christmas before leaving to fight overseas early next year. They and their families shared stories on what it’s like to get ready and to say goodbye. A third soldier, Scot Mackenzie, learned Wednesday night that he won’t deploy to Iraq this winter. It means he’ll be home for his baby’s birth in May, but a soldier’s job is never done. His family braces for the future.

AUBURN — Snickers got an ulcer the last time Paul Bosse left. The vet told Bosse’s wife, Loriann, that the chocolate Lab sensed her stress.

That time, Paul was gone 14 long months.

“I think Snickers just took it for mom,” said Paul, a new captain in the Maine Army National Guard Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry.

Days before leaving again, before delivering what would be a stirring speech to the 150 men and women he’ll lead near the volatile Pakistan border, Paul relaxed at home with Loriann while Snickers and yellow Lab, Darby, loped around. The dogs were blissfully unaware that he was about to leave for a year’s tour. Loriann, though, was getting ready to follow the news, to write him every day, to worry. Paul was just short of eager.

He talked about having read “Three Cups of Tea” and “The Kite Runner,” on top of the traditional military fare, to learn more about the people and the landscape.

“I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t looking forward to it,” Paul said. “It’s a good opportunity to be somewhere where you have a chance to make a difference. I frankly look forward to seeing that part of Afghanistan just as a tourist. Alexander the Great was there; the British Empire was there.”

Looking over at Loriann, he added: “Every time I say that, it’s, ‘You really want to leave me?’ It’s not that, it’s a double-edge.”

He can do good here, but also believes he can do good there.

In January 2006 Paul deployed to Iraq as a platoon leader, escorting convoys and helping train the local army. He was still there when he began a letter campaign to help 13 Iraqi translators emigrate to the U.S. It took 11 months, but it worked.

“I picked every one of them up with their families at the Portland Jetport,” Loriann said.

The couple helped the immigrants find furniture and settle in, many in Lewiston-Auburn.

“How many people get a chance to do that for their fellow man?” Paul said. “They’re thankful, but I’m thankful.”

Paul, from Old Town, joined the Army in 1993 and after six years, transitioned to the Guard. He and Loriann met when they were both University of Maine students in 2000. Loriann, who works at TD Bank, was studying accounting; he, history.

They’d been married just over a year when he left for Iraq.

“It’s definitely easier preparing the second time around,” she said.

They knew what to expect. They’d already taken care of wills and power of attorney.

“Kind of morbid,” Paul said. “You just have to deal with these things; they’re real.”

Her parents are right up the road in a pinch, which is a huge help.

He was named captain in March, a promotion that’s meant long hours and a daily commute to headquarters in Brewer to get ready for this deployment. The company lost two soldiers in that first tour.

“Being scared for him is definitely the hardest,” Loriann said.

When they arrive in-country early next year, Paul hopes troops spend their time on foot, interacting with locals, rather than driving around in big, intimidating vehicles.

“I don’t know if winning hearts and minds is really an objective for America,” he said. “I hope they come to like me, but at the end of the day, if people are able to do for themselves, that’s the larger point.”

Paul remembered last time having moments when he wished he were back in Maine fly-fishing. He’ll miss little things like watching the New England Patriots play on Sundays, and a whole season of the Boston Red Sox.

“I really love my wife and it’s hard being away,” he said.

They spent the last few months enjoying time together and going out to eat, especially at Fuel in Lewiston.

“When am I going to have French cuisine in the next year?” he said.

At a formal farewell ceremony for the soldiers two weeks ago, Paul told his troops to “take pride in being able to say, ‘I was there,’ and take pride in knowing you were part of it, part of this generation,” according to a report from the Bangor Daily News.

Loriann said she sat in the audience, in awe.

“That’s Paul,” she said later. “I have never been more proud. It was breathtaking.”

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Cpt. Paul Bosse watches his wife, Loriann, play with one of their dogs, Darby, in the living room of their Auburn home. Cpt. Bosse commands the National Guard’s 172nd Mountain Infantry Company, which is deploying to Afghanistan after the first of the year.