Just as Canadian soldiers move out of Afghanistan, one local soldier is training a group of primary reservists to go back in.

It's a mission that Maj. Richard Nolan says comes with mixed feelings — feelings that are at the top of his mind every day as he drives to work from his home in Mount Pearl.

He travels Richard Nolan Drive every day. But the street is not named for him. It’s named for a fellow soldier from Newfoundland, who served in Afghanistan — and didn’t make it home.

"It is a bit unusual, every time I see it, it does bring back the memories. Warrant Officer Richard Nolan was killed in Afghanistan and I went over to Afghanistan on tour immediately following his tour," he said.

They are two men with the same name, from the same area, connected by war.

25 years of service

This Richard Nolan has spent the past 25 years immersed in the most horrific peacekeeping missions of our time.

In Afghanistan, his job was to assess the needs in local villages and then negotiate with civilians on the ground.

Nolan said he never knew for sure if he was shaking hands with a friendly, or with the Taliban.

"You get wound up pretty tight,” he said. “You're in a situation and an environment where people are trying to kill you ... You can't live and breathe in an environment like that for six or seven months and then just come home and carry on as if you were normal."

Since Nolan’s first deployment in 1988, he has also served in Germany, Bosnia and Honduras.

But he says nothing compared to Rwanda, where he worked as a medic.

"There were some explosives being used, hand grenades,” he said. “Some of these were quite old and wouldn’t go off when thrown ... the children, walking the streets, would then pick this thing up thinking it was a ball or something like that, would try and kick it around or drop it, and then it would detonate.”

Nolan says he was never the same after Rwanda.

Current role

He is now stationed at Pleasantville in St. John’s where he trains other soldiers in his role as commanding officer of the primary reserves.

"I'm a little bit detached emotionally when it comes to the thought of danger,” he said.

Despite the stress of his own experiences, he said he would be open to going to yet another war zone.

He said his daily commute down Richard Nolan Drive reminds him why soldiers do what they do, even though it can be a deadly business.