Remembering a Band of Brothers One Aroostook County family sent five of its own to serve around the globe during World War II

A tattered clipping from the Bangor Daily News, dated March 12, 1945, tells the poignant story of five brothers from the St. John Valley who were scattered around the globe during World War II. What reads like Hollywood fiction, down to the part where one son doesn’t make it home, really happened to one Acadian French family from the tiny community of Keegan, now part of Van Buren.

Omer, Leo, Guy, Gilbert and Adrien Deschaine were all young and attached to their parents and five siblings when they joined the U.S. Army after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Like their father, Xavier, and their stepmother, Leona, the French-speaking sons had seldom left their family farm near the New Brunswick border.

“This was backwoods Maine,” said Joe Deschaine of Dedham. “I remember during Lent saying the rosary while listening to a French radio station, and Sunday meant leaving very early for the first Mass at Keegan church.”

Joe, who was born to Xavier’s second wife, Leona (his first wife Alice died in 1938), grew up hearing riveting stories of his five half brothers’ wartime service. Although much younger, he forged a bond with the brothers. An Army veteran who was stationed in Korea and served in Vietnam in the 1960s, Joe said World War II changed his family forever.

There’s no doubt Joe’s brother Paul, of South Portland, who served in Germany while in the Army, would agree.

“Things were never easy for them, but my father was strong,” said Joe’s sister, Armande Pelletier of Van Buren. “He had a strong faith, and that sustained him when his sons went off to war.”

Pelletier said it was not unusual for five brothers from Maine to serve their country, but she is surprised they were stationed so far apart. Gilbert and Omer served separately in the Pacific; Guy was in Panama; Adrien served in North Africa; and Leo in France and Germany. Joseph, the youngest son from Xavier’s first marriage, did not serve in World War II.

An overseas letter arriving at the Keegan farm normally was a cause for celebration.

“Father, since I have been in the army I have met a lot of friends … ,” wrote Gilbert on Feb. 21, 1943. “So far father I have learned to speak some of the English language. That will help me quite a lot when the war is over. …”

“Father next pay day I will send home $20 and that will help you some … ,” he continued. “Don’t forget and say some prays (sic) for me and my brothers. … Father I sure do miss you a lot and all my brothers and sisters.”

The postman also brought bad news. One letter informed the family that Gilbert’s ship had been attacked by a Japanese suicide pilot on Mindoro Strait in the Philippine Islands on Dec. 21, 1944, and he was missing in action. The next October, the Rev. Blanchette of the local Catholic parish delivered a telegram from Edward F. Witsell, acting adjutant general of the Army, stating that Gilbert had been declared killed in action.

Pelletier, who now has Gilbert’s Purple Heart, said it was heartbreaking for the family not to have a body to bury in Van Buren’s Catholic cemetery. Today, a simple cross marker and a brass plaque bearing Gilbert’s name sit next to his parents’ grave site. She said that the day Xavier was notified his son was missing in action, her father would hear church bells ringing across the river in Canada while he worked. But whenever he paused, the bells would cease. This continued all afternoon, perhaps seen as some sort of divine message that Gilbert wasn’t coming home.

The other four brothers returned to Maine after the war, all marrying and most having children. Looking for work, Guy moved to Lewiston, where his sister, Lina, already lived. Guy still lives in Lewiston. Omer, the other surviving brother, lives in Connecticut.

Adrien received years of treatment at Togus veterans hospital for a wartime head injury and died in 1992. Leo died in 2006.

“My mother said that, for years, Dad would sit on the bed at night and cry,” Pelletier said. “He didn’t talk to me a lot about Gilbert, but mother would. Even though Gilbert went off to war shortly after she married Dad, I think he was her favorite.”