Our Family

Our Family / Service and remembrance

In service,
in their own words.

Behind every military record is a person who went away from home, served among other people, and carried that experience into the rest of a life. Here we bring their stories, photographs, original orders and unit histories together.

World War II · 1942–1945

Frank Conlin
The 27th Signal Company.

From Philadelphia to the islands of the Pacific, Frank served in the division's communications company. His surviving Army records identify him by name, service number, rank and radio specialty. They place his company in the campaigns of Saipan and Okinawa, then trace him into the Army's return-home system.

Some documents tell what the company did; others name Frank himself. Together they allow a fuller, more human account of the war years.

Explore Frank's service archive ↗

Read his biography ↗

Frank Conlin beside a palm tree in a family photograph
Frank Conlin · Photograph preserved by the family

Open the originals

The paper trail behind a life.

Selected pages are web-sized for comfortable reading. The complete source reels remain in our research archive, while the most revealing records can be opened here without downloading hundreds of pages.

A growing family collection

More lives, more records.

Frank is our first fully illustrated research collection. The same archive will bring together military service across generations and across both families, with each person's story connected to original records and historical context.

Korean War · 1950

Joel Norman Ritter

Serving in Company E, 7th Cavalry Regiment, Joel's military story is closely connected with the fighting around Unsan and his experience as a prisoner of war. His existing family-history chapter will be one of the next to receive a dedicated records collection.

Read Joel's story ↗

The archive ahead

Service across generations

Army orders, morning reports, campaign histories, photographs, maps, personal accounts and service documents will be organized so a single record can illuminate several lives—without merging distinct people or treating shared service as proof of individual participation.

Explore the wider family archive ↗

“After everything that had taken him across the Pacific, his path home had turned on ten points he never had to earn.”

Read “Seventy Points” in Frank's biography ↗