'The birth of the modern National Guard'

One hundred years ago, men from Maine were summoned for duty in response to a guerrilla raid on Columbus, New Mexico.

By Joseph Owen, Copy Desk Chief at the Kennebec Journal.

If my Owen grandparents had planned to celebrate their second wedding anniversary in 1916, what actually happened that day surely isn’t what they had in mind.

Under normal circumstances, they might have left their 7-month-old son, William, with a baby sitter on that June 28 and gone out for a quiet meal at a restaurant in downtown Augusta. Instead, my grandfather, 1st Lt. Frederick H. Owen Jr., was among the many members of the National Guard who were summoned to duty on the Mexican border in response to a guerrilla raid on Columbus, New Mexico, that left 18 Americans dead.

For the full article at the Kennebec Journal, click here.