NC Stories of Service

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NC Stories of Service

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NC Stories of Service is the official page of the Military Collections at the State Archives of NC. The DNCR N.C. Thank you!

With the end of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ official WWI commemoration in 2019, we have transitioned our internationally-popular “North Carolina in WWI” blog and the department’s WWI page to focus on more general military history topics. With the 75th anniversary of WWII and the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, the goal of the DNCR was to expand the representation and stories we share of North Carolina military service individuals, the state’s military installations, and life on the home front in wartime. The new DNCR blog “North Carolina Stories of Service” and a corresponding page will endeavor to share stories of our state’s citizens involved in the U.S. military, whether as service individuals or civilians, and how these experiences have added to the breadth of history of North Carolina. Blog posts will revolve around brief service individuals biographies, anecdotes, events and anniversaries, interesting photographs, maps, posters, films, and other things that help to tell our state’s military history. Stories of anti-war protests, life as civilian wartime factory workers, refugees from conflict areas, school scrap drives, Red Cross and USO clubs’ work—all these and more can be included as posts. The posts will feature images or scans of materials (such as newspaper articles or letters), and spotlight some elements of military history in the state. Stories of Service page will include departmental military commemoration events and exhibits, original photographs, documents, quotes from wartime diaries and letters, and other items, that allows the public to experience war and military service from our fellow North Carolinians’ individual perspectives. We want people to be able to see the ways military service changed from period to period, and to be able to comment and share our content in a user-friendly way. Facebook posts will occur on anniversaries of events, battles, or other military occurrences (such as the 75th anniversary of D-Day).

10/31/2026

Happy Halloween!

This pumpkin-shaped Marine Corps Halloween ball invitation from Camp Lejeune (1943) is certainly festive isn’t it?

10/29/2026

Time to celebrate the internet's favorite animal because today is

We have lots of cat photos in our collection, but none cuter than this photo of the USS Louisiana's mascot Jennie! Animals were often kept as pets and mascots to raise morale and provide comfort to servicemembers during the hardships of war.

WWI 140.B1.F2.7

10/23/2026

In honor of the World Series kicking off, our this week features some baseball!

These soldiers pictured playing a game of baseball were members of the 5th Bomb Group, U.S. Army Air Forces. They were stationed on an island in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

10/20/2026

We'd like to share a new collection of military photographs from our collection, now available on Flickr!

The Keith K. Little World War II photographs are a part of the Keith K. Little Papers (WWII 294) which consists of correspondence, photographs, and other miscellaneous records from the U.S. Army Service of Keith Little of Watauga County, N.C. (1941-1945).

Check them out here:

The Keith K. Little World War II Photographs comes from the Keith K. Little Papers (WWII 294) which consists of correspondence, photographs, and other miscellaneous records from the U.S. Army Service of Keith Little of Watauga County, N.C. (1941-1945).

10/15/2026

In honor of the North Carolina State Fair returning, it feels appropriate to throw it back to when soldiers trained on the fairgrounds!

During the Spanish American War, the U.S. Army rented portions of the fairgrounds for soldiers to train. Pictured here are members of the 2nd North Carolina Regiment on the racetrack in front of the grandstand at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, NC, in 1898.

10/12/2026

In honor of today being , we'd like to highlight this World War I-era record from our collection. This original two-page list contains the names of 117 members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians who registered for the military draft during WWI on June 11, 1917, at the school in Cherokee, N.C. This is the only-known original list that exists in N.C. of the Cherokee members who registered for the federal draft.

10/09/2026

Did you know that today is World Post Day? The holiday was created in 1969 to highlight the importance of the postal service!

To celebrate, we'd like to highlight a few examples of correspondence from our collection:
-Letter from an unknown Union Soldier to his father (January 19, 1865)
-Letter from Sgt. Wiley Pearson Killette to his mother during World War I (May 24, 1915)
-Envelope containing a letter from Gerry Mayo to her fiance David Beveridge during World War II (March 21, 1945)
-V-Mail letter from John B. Graham to his wife during World War II (July 7, 1945)
-Letter from John S. Cooper to his wife during the Civil War (November 6, 1863)

10/02/2026

This week's is a musical one! It features the North Carolina National Guard's Second Infantry Band at Camp Glenn. The soldiers were there for their summer encampment between July 20-27, 1911.

09/29/2026

Need a pick-me-up this afternoon? Good thing today is !

These sailors enjoyed a coffee break aboard U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), in 1944 during World War II.

09/25/2026

Our this week features a sneak peek at a new addition to our collection! We have recently received the Keith K. Little Papers, a collection of correspondence and photographs from the U.S. Army service of Keith Little of Watauga County, N.C.

Keep an eye out for the finding aid (and more photos) soon!

Address

Raleigh, NC

Telephone

+19198146854

Website

https://archives.ncdcr.gov/researchers/collections/military-collections

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