A statue of a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officer looks to the sky in the Fallen Comrades Memorial at the National Conservation Training Center on Jan. 14. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Those who have visited the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) might have noticed a large monument located right outside of the back door to its museum. A bronze statue of a man, surrounded by wildlife, can be seen standing in the center of a half circle of grey stone. Lights illuminate the front of the stone wall, which bears slate plaques engraved with 87 names of former U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service employees who have passed away in the line of service.

“This statue is dedicated to all of the men and women in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service who have lost their lives in the course of their duty,” said Friends of the National Conservation Training Center Chair Ellen Murphy. “The plaques are for all of them. At least one of them is from more than 100 years ago.”

In fact, four of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officers on the plaques passed away over 100 years ago: law enforcement officer William Lynch, who was stationed at the Fisheries Station in Woods Hole, Mass.; Arthur Dean and William Lavery, who were stationed at the Leadvile National Fish Hatchery in Colorado; and U.S. Game Warden Edgar Lindgren in Iowa.

Lynch, who was a Fisheries Station machinist, passed away on Oct. 25, 1917 from gas poisoning, after fixing a boiler tube.

Dean and Lavery, who served as apprentice fish-culturists, lost their lives on May 27, 1920 from drowning in Antero Reservoir in Park County, Colo.

A couple of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service employees walk around the Fallen Comrades Memorial at the National Conservation Training Center on Jan. 14. Tabitha Johnston

Lindgren, who was a World War I veteran, was shot by American bittern poachers in Council Bluff, Iowa and died from his wounds on Aug. 17, 1922.

Murphy noted that there have been many other causes of death, for those who have passed away in the line of service.

“Most of them were firefighters, which is pretty poignant, with what has been going on in California recently. Some lost their lives in a plane crash. Others were shot,” Murphy said. “This statue was done to either of them. To my knowledge, there are at least 37 animals in this statue, including several fish, a bear and an owl.”

The statue drew the eye of a couple U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service employees on Jan. 14, as they walked past during a break in recent training activities at the NCTC. For them, the Fallen Comrades Memorial holds a powerful meaning.

“Every time I come to NCTC, I say ‘hi’ to Tom Lewis,” said Teresa Thome, who is an ecologist based in Oregon. “Tom was a refuge person who worked in Florida. He was one of the first people I worked with in the Student Career Experience Program in the early-2000s.

“I was just starting out, out of the Panama City field office, and my supervisor said, ‘You need to go see Tom,'” Thome said. “I got to do radio tracking and telemetry on red wolves [with him]. They were reintroducing red wolves to some of the refuges in the south-east at the time.”

Thome noted that Lewis later passed away on June 23, 2011, while practicing touch-and-go landing maneuvers with a small airplane — a Beechcraft C24R Sierra — at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.

“It happens, unfortunately, as part of our work,” Thome said. “We try not to let it happen, of course. In fact, we were just talking about operational leadership and safety work.

“It’s really nice that this is here, to just remember the people who are so dedicated that they have given their lives,” Thome said. “It’s good to be able to come here for trainings and be able to reconnect with them.”