A Westbrook man was on his way back to Afghanistan when his camp was attacked and eight soldiers were killed.

Sgt. John Hamel hasn’t talked to his mother much about what it was like to lose eight of his fellow soldiers in one day, or about how, if he’d returned from his leave 12 hours earlier, he could have been the ninth casualty.

A member of the Army’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, Hamel, 26, was stationed at an outpost in the Nurestan province of Afghanistan that was attacked by Taliban forces earlier this month. In one of the deadliest days for U.S. troops in more than a year, the siege killed eight soldiers, including Maine native Sgt. Joshua Kirk.

Hamel, who grew up in Westbrook, was in Kuwait when the attack began, waiting to be airlifted back to his camp after taking a two-week leave to visit his wife and 3-year-old son at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colo.

For Hamel’s mother, Joann Nappi, it was “nothing short of a miracle” that her son wasn’t there. But for him, she said, it was a devastating loss and his absence has been a source of guilt.

“He felt he should have been there with his guys,” Nappi said.

Nappi had gone with her daughter Elise to see Hamel in September. Along with his wife Stephinie and their son Aaron, they went hiking and visited an aquarium in Denver. They walked around a town called Manitou Springs and stopped in the shops and an arcade, where Hamel and his son played video games.

A week after Nappi had returned to Maine, Hamel called her to say he was in Kuwait waiting to leave for his camp in Afghanistan.

“Two hours later, it started happening,” Nappi said.

Two days after that, on the Sunday evening news, Nappi saw that an outpost in northeastern Afghanistan was attacked and eight U.S. soldiers were killed. For confidentiality reasons, Hamel had never told his mother the exact location of his camp. She couldn’t help but wonder.

“I was just kind of hoping he was still in Kuwait,” she said.

Around midnight she was woken up by a phone call. It was her son’s father Joel Hamel, who lives in Portland. John had called him. It was his camp that was attacked, but by the time he was supposed to arrive, the siege had already begun and he was brought to another camp instead.

“He knows I watch the news all the time,” Joel Hamel said, which is why he believes his son called – “just to let me know he was fine,” he said.

Despite the fact that it was good news, Nappi didn’t sleep that night. Even though she knew that he was physically safe, she worried about his mental state.

Hamel called Nappi the next Thursday – her birthday. Of the eight soldiers killed, six were good friends of his. Though they didn’t stay on the phone for long, Nappi could sense her son would be all right.

“I felt a lot better having talked to him,” she said. “I just wanted to hear his voice.”

Hamel joined the Army in 2003 and since then has been deployed to Korea, to Iraq twice and finally, in May, to Afghanistan. After six years of being an Army mom, Nappi said she doesn’t react to close calls like this one like she used to.

“It’s another incident. He’s safe and I’m glad,” she said. But that doesn’t mean she’s unfazed.

“It’s not like you get used to it. You never get used to it. You’re always worrying,” she said.

Joel Hamel, too, said he’s “nervous everyday,” but it’s something he’s learned to live with.

“He’ll be fine. It’s the only way you can think about,” Hamel said.

Nappi has returned to her normal routine, but her son is never far from her thoughts. A leather bracelet engraved with his name only leaves her wrist when she showers and sleeps. The back of her car bears a “Save our troops” license plate and a magnet with his picture. On her commute to work in Portland, she says prayers to keep him safe. Back at home, a yellow ribbon hangs from a tree at the bottom of her driveway.

“He’s back and doing his job,” Nappi said. And from the excitement she hears in his voice when he talks about his day-to-day duties, she said, she knows it’s a job he loves.

“He didn’t join to go to war, but it’s his job and he’s OK with that. He’s a good soldier,” she said. “Do I think he’d die for one of his buddies? You betcha.”

Still, it’s hard on his family members, both the ones in Colorado and the ones in Maine.

“That was a close call,” Nappi said. “Way too close.”

Joanne Nappi of Westbrook ties yellow ribbons around a tree in her driveway as another way to honor her son, Sgt. John Hamel, a soldier serving in Afghanistan. “I want him home,” she said – especially after he narrowly missed a deadly attack that killed eight of his fellow soldiers. (Photo by Rich Obrey)