Mainer gets stroke of luck in Iraq Parents express relief, concern for son

UNION – Carl and Maria Nickles’ son, Spc. Dwight Nickles, left a message on their answering machine Tuesday.

He let them know “he was not dead and he was OK,” his mother said Wednesday at the family home, nestled in the hills off North Union Road.

Dwight Emery Nickles, 22, was among the 133rd Engineer Battalion soldiers attacked Tuesday morning while traveling along a road in Mosul. One Mainer was killed, another was seriously wounded and two suffered minor injuries.

Dwight Nickles was one of the luckier ones.

The family got good news Wednesday: He was released from a hospital and “returned to active duty.”

The 2001 graduate of Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro suffered an ear drum injury, extensive bruising and shock, his mother said.

Maria Nickles did not know if one or both ear drums were shattered or if he will have permanent hearing damage.

Neither parent has talked with their son, though he tried to call twice.

His girlfriend, Lisa Tincher, answered Nickles’ second phone call Tuesday. She relayed a message to a friend of his mother’s who then told Maria Nickels at her job at Camden National Bank in Union.

Gov. John Baldacci has called the family three times, Carl Nickles said. “That’s good – it is for me. I’m happier now. A lot happier that he is all right. But I’m sorry about the other ones.”

Nickles’ parents figure he will be sent right back to his battalion once he’s cleared medically. Before the attack, his tour in Iraq was expected to end in June 2005.

“The way you get more training is on the job,” Carl Nickles said. Dwight has “done more than I have and seen more than I have, and I’m proud of him.”

As a high school junior, Dwight Nickles, then 17, signed up for the National Guard, but returned to school for his final year. He joined the Guard for educational benefits to attend college for an engineering degree. He was enthusiastic about joining the military and loved going to his weekend and annual two-week drills, his father said, but “I don’t know how he’s going to feel now.”

“I don’t think he ever expected to go to war,” his mother said. “He told me that.”

“I’m glad they have bulletproof vests,” Carl Nickles said. “Otherwise, he’d be dead. That’s what saved him. He’s all bruised up.”

Before being deployed to Iraq, Dwight Nickles was working for Holgerson Inc. of West Rockport installing seamless metal roofs.

Carl Nickles described his son as a “good boy. He really is. He’s not a boy today. He’s a man. He was a boy before he left.”