Author and popular historian Andrew Carroll has been delicately sifting through stacks of letters written by the troops who fought every American war. They range from Revolutionary War epistles in exacting penmanship to hastily banged-out Iraq War emails, and everything in between.

The remains of Army Cpl. John A. Spruell, who was killed during the Korean War, will be interred Sept. 3 at Cortez Cemetery in Cortez, Colorado.

Chorwon Valley, South Korea, Sept. 29, 2001: Sgt. Roy Manasco, a gunner with the 6th Battalion, 38th Field Artillery Regiment, at Camp Stanley, South Korea, checks the empty pods of the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) vehicle.

West Berlin, West Germany, Feb. 1, 1983: Vice President George Bush signs autographs for a delighted crowd at the U.S. Command Berlin Sports Center.

A message in a bottle turned up in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Debby. The note was handwritten under the letterhead “United States Navy, Amphibious Training Base, Little Creek, Virginia.” The date on the letter: “3/4/1945.”

The tradition of volunteerism that gave Tennessee its nickname began on Aug. 17, 1774 — before it was even officially a state — when a group of “Tennesseans” deployed as a militia for the first time. It also marked the beginning of the Tennessee National Guard.

Pvt. George Coe Browning is finally coming home. Nearly 80 years after the Marine went missing in action missing during the bloody invasion of Iwo Jima, Coe will be laid to rest Monday in Englewood’s Brookside Cemetery alongside his mother

Pir Ahmad, Iraq, Dec. 12, 2007: First Lt. Jordan Pagones, 23, of Fishkill, N.Y., looks up from his ambush position as an OH-58 Kiowa scout helicopter arcs overhead during an operation in the village of Pir Ahmad in northern Iraq.

Fifty-six years ago, divided Democrats braved raging street protests against the Vietnam War to hold their 1968 convention in Chicago. The party gathers this week for the Democratic National Convention in the same city with anger simmering over another far-away war, this time in Gaza.

WWII aviators Anthony Di Petta, Wilbur Archie Mitts and Jay Manown Jr. were feared forever lost when their Avenger aircraft was shot down Sept. 10, 1944, in the South Pacific. Thanks to high-tech forensic analysis and recovery efforts, however, two of the heroes are now home—and a third is about to be.

Tokyo, Feb. 5, 1989: Top-seeded Martina Navratilova lunges to make a shot during her match against Lori McNeil in the finals of the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament

For almost 20 years, former submariner Kunshiro Kiyozumi had made an annual trip each spring to commemorate his comrades who died near the end of the Pacific War, in suicide attacks using Kaiten “human torpedoes.”

Demilitarized Zone, South Korea, April 17, 2002: A South Korean soldier stands guard at the truce village of Panmunjom, north of Seoul.

The remains of Army Pvt. William E. Calkins, missing in action since the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in World War II, have been accounted for, 81 years after his death in a prisoner of war camp.

Chulmae Range, South Korea, Nov. 27, 2001: Army Pfc. Joshua Turknett, Alfa Battery, 5th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery, stationed at Camp Casey, looks over his live stinger missile prior to going to the Chulmae Range, Korea, during Operation Sea Strike.

When Afghan fighters resisted the Soviet Union’s invasion, one of the well-sung heroes was the 35-pound Stinger, an easily transportable anti-aircraft missile.

The pioneering pilots of the World War II unit now number only three. And as Tuskegee Airmen Inc. gathers for its annual convention, the national nonprofit looks to focus on its mission to cultivate the next generation of Black aviators through hands-on education programs.

Panjshir province, Afghanistan, Nov. 5, 2009: A portrait of the late Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Massoud adorns the entrance to Panjshir province.