Roland Bragg and Barbara Bragg on their 50th wedding anniversary. The couple were committed to their community and facilitated the transfer of land that now houses the Nobleboro ball park and boat launch, said those who knew them. Years after his death, Bragg was recognized for his service to his country during World War II, when he became the new namesake for Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, on Monday, Feb. 10. (Courtesy photo)
On Monday, Feb. 10, former Nobleboro resident and World War II veteran Roland Bragg became a nationally recognized name.
That evening, United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum renaming Fort Liberty – the largest military base in the United States – Fort Bragg, in recognition of the longtime Nobleboro resident’s heroic actions overseas during World War II.
The recognition would have come as a shock to the humble Mainer, who died in 1999, said Debra Townsend-Sokol, of Nobleboro, one of Bragg’s daughters. Yet while Bragg was not one to talk about himself, he was a highly active citizen who played an integral role not only in wartime but for the rest of his life as a member of the Nobleboro community, she said.
During World War II, Bragg, a private first class and paratrooper, “took part in about 30 jumps and survived many other narrow escapes” during the war, according to a “Nobleboro History” column published in The Lincoln County News on Nov. 26, 1987. He was honored with a Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and Silver Star for “gallantry and intrepidity in action,” according to the reporting.
Hegseth’s Feb. 10 memorandum describes the event for which Bragg was awarded a Silver Star. Through “hellish conditions and amidst ferocious fighting, Pfc. Bragg saved a fellow soldier’s life by commandeering an enemy ambulance and driving it 20 miles to transport a fellow wounded warrior to an allied hospital,” the memorandum reads.
Bragg also took two German prisoners in his stolen ambulance, ultimately escaping by flooring the vehicle through enemy fire, according to the 1987 account. He was later injured by shrapnel during the Battle of the Bulge; years later, he reunited in California with the soldier whose life he had saved on the battlefield.
However, while his military service was an important part of Bragg’s life, “he didn’t talk a lot about his war history,” said Dale Wright, former Nobleboro road commissioner and current chair of the budget committee. “He was more concerned about what he could do for our community and how he could make a difference.”
Bragg was highly civic minded, Townsend-Sokol said, serving on the Nobleboro Select Board, as a volunteer firefighter, and spreading kindness and generosity as the owner of a building-moving business and as a private citizen. He also promoted local recreation and was responsible for transferring the land that now holds the Nobleboro ball field and boat launch into town ownership for the enjoyment of generations to come.
“He was very involved in the community,” Townsend-Sokol said.
Yet, she added, just as he was reticent with stories of his military service, Bragg was not apt to discuss his local contributions. This meant that his family did not even learn of all his activities until after Bragg’s death.
“At his funeral, I found out something I didn’t even know: he donated a house to this couple that didn’t have a house to sleep in, and he moved the building, and he furnished the house so they had a warm place to go,” she said.
Wright said Bragg helped provide housing to those in need on numerous occasions, often using his position as a building mover to help families access affordable homes.
“He moved a lot of buildings around, but a lot of times people didn’t want a building, so he would move it onto his property and fix it up, then either rented it to people or sold it really cheaply,” Wright said.
Wright and his father, Chester Wright, who ran an excavation business, often worked with Bragg to move buildings, Dale Wright said. As a young man, Wright got to know Bragg, who he described as “a jack-of-all-trades” with “a really good heart.”
“He was such a valuable part of our community,” Wright said.
During his years on the Nobleboro Select Board, Bragg was “instrumental” in the establishment of the Nobleboro-Jefferson Transfer Station, Wright said.
Townsend-Sokol recalled Bragg’s involvement on the select board during her childhood. During that period, she said, Bragg and his fellow selectmen oversaw the construction of Nobleboro Central School. The Lincoln County News archives note Bragg also moved the one-room schoolhouse that now houses the Nobleboro Historical Society from its former location to its current site alongside NCS at no charge.
Bragg was also a volunteer firefighter, Townsend-Sokol said – a commitment that saw him dashing out of the house at all hours – and a loyal member of American Legion Post No. 42 in Damariscotta.
All these activities were commitments Bragg undertook in addition to his full-time employment. Townsend-Sokol said her father was motivated by an honest desire to serve his community.
Roland and Barbara Bragg (back row, fourth and fifth adults from right), town officials, and Nobleboro fourth graders attend the celebration of the opening of the town’s boat launch in October 1995. The Braggs arranged for the town to assume ownership of the land to ensure public access to Pemaquid Lake for generations to come, in keeping with Roland Bragg’s commitment to public service, local youth, and recreation, as described by those who knew him. Decades later, on Feb. 10, 2025, Bragg was recognized for his service in World War II when he became the namesake for Fort Bragg in North Carolina. (LCN file)
This was also evident in Bragg’s efforts to spread joy among local youth. Townsend-Sokol recalled ice-skating parties that Bragg organized on Pemaquid Pond as one example of the ways he promoted community gatherings apart from his various official roles.
“He’d buy 10 pounds of hot dogs and several packages of marshmallows and hot dog buns, and he’d … clear off the pond with his truck, so we’d have ice to skate on,” Townsend-Sokol said. “He’d light twigs in an old car top so we could roast hot dogs and marshmallows and skate on the pond.”
Bragg and his wife, Barbara Bragg, also had recreation in mind when they arranged to convey the parcel of land that is now Nobleboro’s ball field and boat launch to the town for a “generous” price, according to a front page story in the Oct. 21, 1993 edition of The Lincoln County News.
The Braggs offered to convey the parcel to the town for the price of $150,000, with the understanding that the couple would refund $50,000 to the town as a donation.
“My wife and I have been thinking about it for a long time,” Bragg said at the time.
The purchase went through, securing public access to Pemaquid Pond for generations of Nobleboro residents to come.
“I love it. I think it’s great,” Bragg was quoted as saying upon completion of the sale in an Oct. 19, 1995 edition of The Lincoln County News in which he was also described as “a man of few words.”
Use of the land to construct the Nobleboro ball field was fitting, given that Barbara Bragg’s father, Valentine Picinich, had played for the Boston Red Sox, Townsend-Sokol said.
The couple dedicated the field to Picinich when it was completed, Townsend-Sokol said, adding that it brought Bragg joy to know that the land would be enjoyed by Nobleboro youth for generations to come.
“He wanted to see the kids having fun,” she said.
The Braggs’ donation was emblematic of their commitment to Nobleboro’s present and future, Wright said.
“He was such a valuable part of our community, with Barbara (Bragg). When they passed, they wanted to make sure they gave that land for the ball park, like it says on the stone, for the enjoyment of all,” he said. “That’s what they wanted, to make sure that their legacy was passed down to our community.”
The Nobleboro ball field and boat launch were both conveyed to the town by longtime town resident, volunteer, and businessman Roland Bragg and his wife, Barbara Bragg. Roland Bragg, who was also a decorated World War II veteran, was nationally recognized for his service Monday, Feb. 10, when he became the new namesake for North Carolina’s Fort Bragg. (Molly Rains photo)
