Responding to the call to battle to protect the interests of the United States has long been a hallmark of Mainers, with among the highest number of veterans per capita in the country. Washington County in particular has sent some of its finest into the field -- and not all of them returned. In Calais, the loss of Fred and Harry Sherman was keenly felt during World War I, while Eastport's Ralph Ray was deeply mourned when he failed to come back from the Mexican Punitive Expedition in 1916. Despite how profoundly their losses affected their respective communities, however, local historians say they, along with many other veterans, are becoming forgotten today, even during local Memorial Day observances.
      "The tragedy was that they were brothers serving together and they were killed within a few weeks of each other," says John "Al" Churchill, president of the St. Croix Historical Society (SCHS), of the Sherman brothers. The brothers were among the first to enlist from Calais when the U.S. entered World War I in 1917 and were among the first Americans to see combat in France as part of the Yankee Division.
      For his part, Fred was no novice -- he'd previously served for the Canadian army in the conflict prior to the U.S. entering the fray. That wasn't enough to save him on June 6, 1918, when the desperate Germans went all out to overrun his troop's position at Xivray. A few days after Fred's death, Harry's unit was rushed to Chateau Thierry to defend Paris, and it was there, during the Second Battle of the Marne, that he too lost his life. "How the family coped with this, I can't imagine," Churchill says.
      Locally, casualties in World War I were relatively few, Churchill says, although some communities were more affected than others, with the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik losing four men in the conflict. In the case of the Sherman brothers, the Calais American Legion post was named in their honor, but "they weren't recognized in any other way."
      While having a legion post named in one's honor is significant, it doesn't adequately capture the sentiment surrounding those who lost their lives. Such is the case in Eastport, where 18 year old Ralph Ray enlisted alongside a few of his friends in 1912.
      "The real motivation [for enlisting] was adventure," says local historian Wayne Wilcox, who adds that economics -- or having "three square meals and a roof over your head" -- was another contributing factor. Ray, the only son of George R. and Martha (Newcomb) Ray, was "highly thought of" in the community and "had a good relationship with a lot of people." An all around athlete, he was spoken of as having a brilliant aptitude for physical challenges.
      In 1913, Ray -- who was by then the youngest member of his company to be promoted to sergeant on account of his athleticism and leadership ability -- went west to sign up for a cavalry unit, and from there he went to fight in the Philippines. During that time, "many interesting letters were received by his father in this city indicat[ing] that he saw considerable service and passed through numbers of thrilling experiences before his return to the United States," reads an article printed in the Commercial Bangor in 1916.
      At the time of Ray's return to the country, the U.S. hadn't yet entered World War I, and Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa was waging war along the southern border. After arriving back in the states, Ray and his unit were sent to the Mexican border.
      A "good soldier," Ray unfortunately found himself ambushed alongside a companion, Wilcox recalls. Laying on the ground and firing upward, Ray was unable to extricate himself from the situation, and he was fatally shot through the head. He received a full military funeral and was buried near the field where he fell, while his personal effects were sent back to Eastport. "His death came as a shock to the town," Wilcox says of the then 22-year-old. Later, his remains were transferred to Hillside Cemetery to be interred in the family plot.
      The local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post -- now closed -- took on Ray's name when it opened in 1932 in honor of him being the first Eastporter to die on foreign soil. The city passed a resolution to change the name of Key Street to Ray Street, and while the resolution holds, the street has been colloquially renamed back to Key.
      Wilcox recalls hearing about Ray while he was growing up, but "it's waned over time. He's become a footnote in history, basically forgotten. It's sad. We're losing touch with that generation."
      Even as memory fades away, area organizations are working to gather and compile historical records. The Tides Institute & Museum of Art (TIMA) is actively engaged in collecting artifacts and written journals from the Civil War era, for example, including Charles T. Eldridge's handwritten enlistment record of men who came from Eastport. "Thank goodness Eldridge wrote it down and [TIMA] has been able to preserve it," Wilcox says.
      In Calais, meanwhile, the SCHS published a book in 2015 written by Dr. Ken Ross that compiled all of the known Civil War records for soldiers from Washington County. The society plans to hold a special presentation on Monday, June 9, at 7 p.m. at 527 Main Street recounting the stories of the Sherman brothers and other early combat veterans to help keep their stories alive.
      While records from the Civil War remain intact, those from earlier wars remain significantly harder to come by for local communities. Walking around Hillside Cemetery recently, Wilcox came across two gravestones of Revolutionary War soldiers he was unfamiliar with, an oddity given his extensive knowledge of area veterans. "It's amazing what's been forgotten, not just about Ray but about our other veterans. That generation is gone, and there's very little remembrance."