SABATTUS – Earl Osborne wears his patriotism on his ice shack.

There are shiny gray stars and “USA” is spray-painted in wide block letters in a corner of the 4- by 6-foot shelter.

“Home of the Brave” decorates one wall. “Support our troops” is written on another.

And on the roof, just in case anyone sees from above, he wrote “Thank You.”

“I want people to see it on the ice,” Osborne said. “I want them to see that I care.”

The Sabattus man needed to do something to express himself, he said.

He recently learned that two nephews, Kevin and Neil Corriveau, are awaiting orders from the U.S. Army to be sent to the Middle East.

And over Thanksgiving, his brother, Stevie Ray Bond of Waterford, announced that he would be going there, too. Bond is a National Guardsman, part of the 133rd Engineering Battalion. He’s slated to be gone for 18 months.

“It’s going to be lonely,” Osborne said. “He’s my brother. He’s also my best friend.”

The brothers would ice fish every year, holing up in the shack with coffee, a deck of cards and a cribbage board.

While fishing for trout, salmon and pike, the brothers would renew their friendship. “There was a lot of fish talk,” Osborne said.

When the news hit, it depressed him, said his wife, Debbie. “He was down in the dumps,” she said.

“I thought, ‘Not again,'” said Earl. He has worried for his brother before.

Bond was a Marine in the early 1980s. He was in Beirut, Lebanon, in October 1984 when a terrorist blew up a compound and killed 242 Marines and 58 French servicemen.

For three days, they didn’t know if he’d survived.

The memory still makes Earl shake his head. “Not again,” he repeated.

The sadness led Earl to pick up a spray can earlier this week and begin his ice-shack makeover.

He bought nothing special. “It didn’t cost a dime,” Debbie said.

Earl feels better, though.

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