A captain asked if it was OK to call him Pops. John Cervone said he’d take it as a compliment.

A guy who goes to war at 59 can expect moments like that, reminders that he is at least a generation removed from those who usually carry the load.

When he went to Fort Dix a year ago to get ready, he says it was like boot camp all over again — running, calisthenics, road marches, heavy packs, training in mock villages for urban combat. He vowed not to drop from all that exertion in a New Jersey summer. And he didn’t.

There were times in Iraq when he had reason to wonder about his decision to go. The heat that reached 140 degrees at times was something he never got used to. It hit him when he first set foot in the country and stayed there as a constant, draining presence. He followed the advice to drink lots of water and Gatorade.

There was the time he heard the daily call to prayer over a loudspeaker in Baghdad interspersed with rocket fire from an unseen enemy.

“I have a pretty nice life — a good job with the National Guard, a beautiful wife, so why would I do it?”

He answers his own question: “I may be able to make things easier for some people.”

And there is, of course, his son, Eric. Eric served four years in the Marines before joining the Rhode Island National Guard. And when Eric, a member of the 169th Military Police Company, got his orders for Iraq in May of last year, his father broke one of his longstanding rules.

“I volunteered.”

The Cervones are not the first Rhode Island father and son to serve in Iraq at the same time, and they probably won’t be the last. The nature of the war, the heavy reliance on Guard and Reserve units, has meant the age range of the troops is wider than ever before. There are Vietnam veterans who have served in Iraq. Their first war ended 35 years ago.

For Cervone, who came home to North Providence last month, the nine months in Iraq were an intense and very personal final tour of duty in a military career that will end soon, after 31 years. It started in the Navy and ends in the Guard.

Cervone is a sergeant in the Guard, a military journalist. In Iraq, he worked out of the Green Zone in Baghdad. Escorting civilian reporters was part of his job. While there is no absolutely secure area in Iraq, he sometimes had to go to places where the tension went up a few notches.

“It was a little exciting, going into areas where we had to lock and load. I hate to say it, but it really was exciting. I really felt alive.”

Others have said it before. As crazy as it is, war offers unmatched danger and an unmatched sense of living life to the fullest. Nothing back home is going to match it.

Then there was the helicopter ride with Governor Carcieri. That was when the war got a lot more personal.

The governor went to Iraq last December to visit the troops from Rhode Island.

“I went with him to Ramadi,” says Cervone. “He arranged it. He arranged it with my CO to go up with him. Eric was called in from the field.”

Before that day, father and son had connected by e-mail whenever possible. But hitching a ride with the governor meant the chance to see if there were changes after months of hard duty.

“It was six months since I had seen him. He had the same attitude. He’s a very positive kid. I know they’d seen a lot of crap, but he takes it in stride.”

They talked about personal things. The son showed the father around his very spartan base camp and introduced him to other members of his squad. The squad, says Cervone, is a good bunch.

He realized he liked the “kids” he went to war with. There was not a lot of negativity in the way they approached their jobs. And they looked out for him and he looked out for them.

“The military is not fun every day, but there are these moments,” says Cervone. “The young guys, I could advise them on financial things, problems at home, things from life. I’d try to explain their benefits to them.

“I was a buffer for them with upper management.”

His son is on the way home, and Cervone is looking ahead to what he might do after those 31 years in the military. He will be 60 in October. He is thinking about another federal job but not one in uniform.

Looking back at Iraq, he thinks it just might work. He thinks there are things in place there and if the Iraqis make the most of them the long, hard, brutally hot war that he and his son have been part of will finally pay off.

“The U.S. really is trying to help them help themselves.

“With everything in place right now, if they can assume responsibility for taking over the country, if these things work, we probably did a good job.”

bkerr@projo.com