'Tommy' Dostie loved kids and being a Guard mechanic

By TESS NACELEWICZ, Portland Press Herald Writer

Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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	Blethen Maine News Service by Joe Phelan About 80 people hold a vigil in honor of Thomas J. Dostie, a volunteer firefighter, outside the Somerville firehouse Wednesday.
	Mainers at War Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram journalists Bill Nemitz and Gregory Rec have returned to Iraq, embedded with 133rd Engineer Battalion, Maine Army National Guard in Mosul. Mainers at War section includes: Coverage of the attack on their base Slide show of photos from Tuesday's attack. Messages from families to troops in Iraq Photos from the troops To top of story

SOMERVILLE — Spc. Thomas John Dostie worked hard this past year in Iraq, helping fight the war in his role as a mechanic with the Maine Army National Guard. But the 20-year-old Somerville resident also took time out to write to a 13-year-old neighbor he befriended about six months before he was called up. And in his last letter, dated Nov. 13, Dostie made a promise to Jake Pilsbury. "When he got home from Iraq he would take me to anywhere I wanted to go as a special gift," Jake said Wednesday.

But Dostie, a member of the Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion, died Tuesday in Iraq. He was one of two Maine soldiers killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a dining tent at a base camp in Mosul. The tent was filled with hundreds of American and Iraqi soldiers and civilian workers having lunch. In all, 22 people died and 69 were wounded.

Dostie's death leaves Jake and others trying to cope with the loss of a much-loved member of this small Lincoln County community. They remembered him Wednesday as someone who was proud to serve his country, liked to laugh and was always willing to help others.

"He was an awful good kid," Michael Westcott, Jake's stepfather, said of Dostie, whom everyone called Tommy. "The town will be worse off without him."

Dostie grew up in Somerville, a town of about 500 people. Although just a 30-minute ride from Augusta, the town is still very rural, with its modest frame homes set in piney woods or on rolling fields. It is so small it doesn't have its own general store.

Dostie was the younger of two sons of Michael and Margaret Dostie. Michael Dostie is chief of the town's volunteer fire department, Westcott said.

On Wednesday, a stream of cars came and went at the family's brown wooden home on Long Pond as townspeople stopped by to extend their condolences, bring food and offer prayers. A yellow ribbon was tied to the family's mailbox, and bright Christmas lights outlined the home's entranceway.

Family members were too distraught to talk, but neighbors said Dostie and his family are known for their service to the close-knit town, such as helping needy youngsters, assisting people when their cars slide off an icy road or cleaning out chimneys for free.

"He comes from a good family," said Ralph Turner, whose 22-year-old son and Dostie were friends. "If you needed something, you could always count on Tommy."

John Houllahan of Winthrop, Dostie's foster brother and godfather, said he "made friends with anybody he met."

Dostie, who was to have returned home by March, had called his family less than a week ago to wish everybody a merry Christmas. Houllahan said that "he just wanted to make sure everybody was doing OK - that's just how he was."

Houllahan, 40, said the family was heartened by the outpouring of support from their neighbors.

Dostie enjoyed water-skiing and fishing and was a hard worker, Houllahan said. He had a slight build, but trained hard to wrestle in high school to make up for whatever he lacked in natural athletic ability. Dostie was a graduate of Erskine Academy in South China.

Dostie also had a strong rapport with children.

He was close to Houllahan's 11-year-old son, taking him to the movies, playing computer games and building models of castles with him. "My son was waiting for him to come home so they could build it again," Houllahan said.

Dostie also befriended his young neighbors, Jake Pilsbury and his brother, Josh Westcott, 10, in the summer of 2003. Dostie and Jake hit if off because of their shared interests.

"We both like to work with engines," Jake explained. "He was smart with engines."

Besides swimming with them in the lake and teaching them how to drive a snowmobile, Dostie helped Jake and Josh build go-carts.

"He would do anything for us if we asked him," Jake said. "He was a good friend. . . . He was a role model."

Dostie completed basic training between his junior and senior years in high school and joined the Guard in 2002 after graduating, believing it might help him further his career as a mechanic, neighbors said.

When Dostie and other members of the 133rd were mobilized last December, Westcott said Dostie went willingly. "He didn't question anything, he was just proud of what he did," Westcott said.

Jake said Dostie wrote to tell him that he was working on big trucks and that the weather was hot and windy. "He said he was pretty happy over there," Jake said.

Peter Rogers, spokesman for the Maine Army National Guard, said Dostie maintained and repaired equipment and the trucks that went out in convoys. Rogers said Dostie's commanders and fellow soldiers "thought the world of him. He was just a tremendous asset to the unit and a real hard worker."

"I think he was very happy to be in the service," Turner said.

Dostie returned home this summer on leave, and Turner said he warned him to keep his head down when he returned to Iraq.

But Turner said Dostie - a "happy-go-lucky guy" who liked to joke - just shrugged off the warning. Turner said Dostie told him: "Don't worry about me. I'm in the back, working and taking care of stuff."

- Staff Writer Josie Huang contributed to this story.

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