LEWISTON —  He’s home, but not for long.

Nicholas Theriault, a staff sergeant with the Maine Army National Guard Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry, returned from Afghanistan at the end of November and he’s already awaiting his next assignment: U.S. border patrol.

The 27-year-old was accepted into the federal program before shipping off to war. While he’ll ultimately be bound for the Maine border, first it’s five months of agent academy down south followed by up to a year of training on the job.

It’s another lengthy commitment, except this time, wife Erin is going.

“We’re not doing the year apart thing again,” Theriault said.

Theriault spent his deployment near the Pakistan border doing two weeklong stints at a rough outpost in the mountains. When he and the other American soldiers arrived, they found a handful of Afghan border police sleeping in a shipping container and a mud hut.

“We just went crazy trying to fortify it,” he said. “Day-to-day life there was pick-axing and digging.”

Supplies had to be air-dropped in, and soldiers got creative making tents out of the air-drop parachutes.

Given the conditions, the couple — high school sweethearts from St. Dom’s — didn’t have as much contact as during his first deployment to Iraq. The Internet was slow, mail erratic. They could go weeks between phone calls.

Erin said she stayed busy with family and work, baby-sitting lots of nieces and nephews. And again, she wrote him every day.

When they talked, they’d ask each other, why does this time feel so much longer? Neither had a good answer.

“I was looking forward to her cooking. She always cooks healthy for me,” Theriault said. “She’s been spoiling me since I’ve been home.”

He could receive as little as two weeks notice before border patrol training starts, and he’ll have to leave again. Erin, 27, grew up in the South and still has family down there. She said she’s lucky, too — she can take her nursing career just about anywhere.

“We’re living life to the fullest,” Theriault said. “I’m always up for an adventure.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com