Having a son serving in Afghanistan is less stressful if you've already served in the military yourself - news of battle casualties overseas is a little easier to brace for.
And it's even easier to sleep if your son joined the military after retiring from a career as a bare-knuckle boxing champion and an ultimate fighter.
But there was still a split second when William Nairne feared the worst when his phone rang at midnight Saturday in Winnipeg.
"I'd just heard a soldier had been killed and two others injured in Afghanistan," Nairne told the Sun yesterday.
"I had the fleeting thought - oh no, this is the call - but it was him, and he was OK."
William's son Pte. Andrew Social, 40, was calling to say he wasn't one of the two soldiers injured in a firefight west of Kandahar, in which Cpl. Anthony Joseph Boneca was killed.
Social was deployed to Afghanistan in February from Edmonton Garrison.
"He'd been hospitalized for dehydration and to get his eyes cleaned out, but they were sending him back out on patrol right away," Nairne said.
"Honestly I'm not sure which is more stressful. Having him be a bare-knuckle boxer and fighter, or having him serve over there," said the retired military signalman.
Nairne said his son isn't allowed to tell him if he was involved in the tragic firefight until he returns to Canada
PUBLICATION: The Edmonton Sun
DATE: 2006.07.10
SOURCE: BY BROOKES MERRITT, EDMONTON SUN
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment