Pain of war hits home Sgt. Poulin mourned in Freedom

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FREEDOM – Sgt. Lynn Robert Poulin was described as a solitary man who was raised in a log cabin. He loved tinkering and tramping the woods and died for his country in a mess tent in Iraq.

“He was serving his country and doing his obligation,” said Barbara Worthley, the sister of his wife, Jeanne, on Wednesday. “He felt he needed to do his duty.”

Poulin, 47, of North Palermo Road was one of two members of the 133rd Engineer Battalion of the Maine National Guard killed Tuesday when a suicide bomber exploded a device in a crowded mess tent at an Army base outside the northern Iraq city of Mosul.

Also killed was Thomas John Dostie, 20, of Somerville. Ten Maine soldiers were wounded in the attack. The blast killed 22 and injured more than 60.

“She’s in shock,” Worthley said of her sister. “Basically, she lost her best friend. All things considered she’s doing pretty good.”

As the designated spokesman for the family, Worthley spoke of her brother-in-law to a group from the news media assembled in the side yard of Poulin’s mobile home.

The home is located a short distance up the road from the log cabin where he was raised and where his mother still lives. American flag bunting and colored lights hung from the cabin’s railing. A bumper sticker on a car in Poulin’s yard announced, “Half my heart is in Iraq.” Worthley described the news of Poulin’s death as “a hard time for the family” and said it would be a very sad Christmas for all.

“We get together every Christmas Eve,” she said. “Lynn was part of that and it will be hard.”

Poulin left two sons from a previous marriage, Michael and Lynn Robert, both in their 20s, and Jeanne’s two children, Ryan, in his 20s, and his teenage sister, Cindy. He also left three sisters, Nancy and twins Dale and Gail, and his mother, Terese. All of the family live in central Maine.

“She’s such a rock,” Worthley said of Poulin’s 70-something mother. “This was her baby.”

Worthley said that Poulin contacted his family daily from Iraq by telephone or e-mail. She said his messages were always cheerful and always were about what was happening at home.

“He did not want anybody to worry,” she said. “He’d say, ‘Don’t worry about me, they’ve got us hidden away where it’s safe.'”

Freedom is a quiet town tucked in the rolling hills of western Waldo County. It’s the kind of place where everybody knows everyone else. It’s a place where drivers wave to one another as they pass by on the narrow roads. Those who knew Poulin said he liked to keep to himself.

Selectman Wilson Hess described the family as “salt of the earth people” and said that when he met with Poulin’s mother Wednesday morning, “she said, ‘The light has gone out of my life.'”

Neighbor Dottie Waterman also recalled that Poulin was very close to his mother. He got her a new car when he came home on leave in October and always called from Iraq to tell her not to worry.

“He was definitely the light of her life,” said Waterman. “She used to call him her blue-eyed boy and whenever she talked to him it was like he was still 3 feet tall. He knew he could do no wrong in his mother’s eyes. He was extremely attentive to his mother. She relied on him for many things.”

Poulin attended Mount View High School in neighboring Thorndike and had served with the Maine National Guard for 23 years. He worked at Bath Iron Works as a shipfitter.

Mike Keenan, president of Local S6, the union that represents machinists and shipbuilders at BIW, remembered him as “a great guy.” Poulin joined BIW in 1988 as a machinist, Keenan said, and worked as a structural fitter, building parts that became the hulls of ships.

“A lot of us knew him,” he said. “He was friendly to everybody, he was a hard worker, he was well-liked.”

Poulin often “talked about his family,” Keenan recalled. “He was very proud of his kids. … Things are sad in the shipyard today. Lynn made the ultimate sacrifice for us all.”

Waterman said Poulin was an incredibly skilled tinkerer who loved nothing better than salvaging a piece of machinery that someone had given up on. She also said that he and his chain saw were “inseparable.” If he wasn’t working with metal or a machine, he was out on his land working in the woods, she said.

She said he was a talented welder and was the ideal kind of person to have in a place such as Iraq. She said that she and her husband, John, would marvel at Poulin’s ability to make treasure from trash.

“He was resourceful, the most self-sufficient person we’ve ever known,” said Waterman. “When you’re in a place with no spare parts he was the guy you’d want because he could fix anything. I’m sure if he had a chance to put more armor on a vehicle he would be the one doing it.”

Waterman said she noticed a change in Poulin when he was home on leave from Iraq this fall. She said he “looked happy and really seemed at peace. It seemed like he was in his element.” She speculated that in going from a “two-week-a-year to a full-time soldier” Poulin may have found that he enjoyed the companionship and camaraderie.

Waterman also recalled that Poulin once told her: “I don’t want to come home disabled. I want to come home fine or not at all.”

Poulin will be returning home with full military honors, according to Maine National Guard Warrant Officer Mark Houdlette. Houdlette did not know the exact date of Poulin’s arrival. Residents of Freedom are planning a benefit potluck supper for the fallen soldier’s family for Jan. 29 at the Mount View school complex.

“He was a really good guy who took care of my sister and was committed to his family,” said Worthley.

NEWS reporter Tom Groening contributed to this story.