Acorn lost a buddy in a firefight just three weeks into the tour. His comrade was gunned down 10 metres from Acorn as he carried on with a heavy heart fighting a long, exhaustive battle.

He has taken his own hits, as well.

Acorn lost hearing in one ear when the tank he was in was struck by rocket fire. He dismisses as minor the injury caused by shrapnel striking the back of his leg in another incident.

He also talks matter-of-factly of the routine hardship of battle in the ominous-sounding “outside the wire’’ zone he finds himself in the majority of his time as he either prepares for or engages in battle.

He spends up to 20 hours at a time crammed into a tank and is often tasked with constantly loading a machine gun to a level of fatigue he likens to running a marathon.

Then there are the roadside bombs that have killed so many Canadian soldiers. He has seen at least eight explode near a vehicle. He has also been along for the ride as another dozen or so were detected and detonated by engineers.

Danger — and possible death — is always near at hand.

Yet Acorn, a broad-shouldered and muscular soldier who stands five feet, 10 inches and weighs approximately 220 pounds, is in no hurry to flee trouble.

While politicians and Canadians debate what our country’s role should be in Afghanistan — questioning how many Canadian soldiers should be there and how long they should stay, among other logistics and responsibilities — this Island soldier has plenty of fight left in him.

In fact, he is considering extending his own scheduled time in Afghanistan. He is slated to return to Canada in mid-March, but is currently leaning towards volunteering to stay on an additional three months to work as a liaison with the Afghan National Army.

Acorn wants to continue making a positive impact.

“In my opinion . . . we couldn’t be doing any better work than what we are doing now,” he said of the Canadian troop effort.

Family — his mom and stepfather live in Dundas, his father and stepmother live in North River — follow his progress with pride and worry.

Alice Peters breaks down sobbing when asked to describe the toll her son’s tour is having her. She doesn’t even want to think about Nicholas being in Afghanistan.

“I’m very proud of him,” she said after composing herself. “I have had so many people say he is so brave to be doing this . . . It (words of support) does help.”

Both mom and son try to play a comfort game with one another. She tries to keep her intense feelings to herself and Nicholas does his best to downplay all the mayhem in Afghanistan.

“He doesn’t know my feelings,” she said. “I just think Nicholas handles things better if he thinks that I’m handling things better."

Peters fears all the violence and turmoil that has become commonplace for her son over the past four plus months will leave an intense imprint on Nicholas.

“Do I think he will come back the way he was? No, I don’t think any of them will. They couldn’t,” she said.

“I think it has to stay with them, the violence and all that is going on. I just can’t see them coming from that and back to P.E.I. and just going on like nothing happened. There has to be some change to their life.”

Allan Acorn, likewise, has no illusions that his son is anywhere other than in a hellish place. And he doesn’t think the general public realizes just what soldiers like his son are going through in Afghanistan day after torturous day.

“It’s quite a strain,” he said. “This is what they are supposed to be trained for but I don’t think the training can ever match what they are doing there.”

Each time Allan learns of another Canadian soldier being killed in Afghanistan, he immediately wonders how closely his son may have been to the incident and if Nicholas knew the soldier well.

“You try not to think that it is him or anything like that,” said Allan. “You just don’t go there.”

He is concerned his son will not be able to put all the horror of Afghanistan behind for a long time after his return — if at all.

“There is no way we can imagine what he has seen . . . and what he is going to see in his memory bank for years,” said Allan.

Mom and dad can, perhaps, find some solace in the knowledge that their son is pursuing a childhood dream. All Nicholas talked about when he was growing up, said Peters, was his desire to be in the army.

Nicholas listened intently to his late grandfather, Raymond Acorn, recount tales of army life from his service in the Second World War, which included seeing action in Germany.

“He (Nicholas) just seemed to be, right from day one, infatuated with the Canadian flag and infatuated (with getting in the army),” said Allan.

Copyright
Waldron H. Leard