DETROIT AT WAR · INDUSTRY · SERVICE · RETURN
THE WAR
DEPARTMENT
Before the badge, Detroit built for war. Ralph Palmer's documented path runs through industrial training, wartime production, Army Air Forces service and the veterans' community he returned to.
Palmer family records anchor Ralph’s individual chronology; public historical sources supply the wider story of wartime Detroit.
Arsenal of Democracy
Detroit factories, wartime production and the industrial world surrounding Ralph's tool-and-die and engineering work.
ENTER THE PLANTS → 02Engineering & Training
Ford apprenticeship, tool-and-die work and the University of Detroit Tool Engineering war-training certificate dated August 17, 1943.
OPEN THE RECORD → 03Army Air Forces
Military photographs, service documents, Big Spring, Texas, and the record of Ralph's wartime service.
OPEN THE SERVICE FILE → 04Home From War
The transition back to Detroit and into the postwar veterans' community.
FOLLOW THE RETURN → 05AMVETS
Herman Gardens Post No. 43, Ralph's veterans' work, surviving newspaper columns and the community that followed the war.
OPEN THE AMVETS FILE → 06From Service to Badge
The next door in the chronology leads into the Detroit Police Department.
ENTER THE DEPARTMENT →