Military service is often described through years served, ranks earned, and places stationed, but for the families who live it, service is also found in the memories carried home, the friendships that become family, and the lessons passed from one generation to the next.

For the Kellerman families, military service is part of a story that stretches across decades, branches, and even countries. It includes Technical Sergeant Ryan Kellerman, his father, Veteran Charles Mark Kellerman, and his father-in-law, Veteran Thomas Eric Atchley. Connecting generations through a shared understanding of duty and commitment.

Their experiences were not the same. Each entered the military at a different point in their lives and followed a different path. Yet their stories reveal how the people who serve can influence those who come after them, sometimes without ever asking them to follow in their footsteps.

Today, Technical Sergeant Ryan Kellerman serves on active duty in the U.S. Air Force at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, as the NCOIC, Physical Security. He enlisted in 2009, but the idea of serving his country began years earlier, when he was still a child.

“I always wanted to be in the military,” TSgt Kellerman said. “Growing up, I watched all the war movies and documentaries. Then 9/11 happened when I was in middle school, and I knew then I was going to join.”
His father’s service was part of the world TSgt Kellerman grew up knowing. Charles never pressured his son to enlist, but his experiences gave him an example of what a military career could offer.

“It played a huge part,” TSgt Kellerman said. “He never pushed me to join, but he always guided me, knowing there was a better life while serving and when my career was finished.”

For TSgt Kellerman, following his father into the Air Force means more than sharing a branch of service.
“Everything,” TSgt Kellerman said when asked what carrying on his family’s military tradition meant to him. “Being a third-generation service member, following my father in the Air Force and my grandfather in the Royal Navy, means a lot to me.”

Some of the memories he carries are tied to milestones in his career. Others are found in the relationship he shares with his father.

“Seeing the pride on his face when I graduated BMT and Tech School, and all the accomplishments I’ve had since,” TSgt Kellerman said. “Oh, and the laugh I get when I tell him I outrank him!”

The joke brings a little humor to a relationship shaped by a shared experience. For a father who once wore the same Air Force uniform, watching his son build a career of his own offers a different perspective on the life he knew.

For Charles Kellerman, military service began with a childhood dream of becoming a firefighter.

“I only wanted to join the Air Force to be a fireman,” Charles recalled.

Raised in Portland, Oregon, Charles moved around the city as his father worked as a postal carrier. He graduated from Washington High School in 1978, the school’s final graduating class, and went to work for an insurance company. Two uncles, Larry and Donald, who had served in the military also influenced his decision to enlist.
In June 1981, at age 21, Charles joined the Air Force. He completed his training in San Antonio and graduated in October of that year before receiving his first assignment at RAF Mildenhall in England.

While stationed there, Charles met Katherine in 1982. He was later assigned to George Air Force Base in Victorville, California, where the couple married in 1985 and are still married to this day. Charles returned to England for an assignment at RAF Greenham Common, where he served until January 1993.

Moving between duty stations meant more than packing up a home and learning a new route to work. Each assignment brought different surroundings, cultures, foods, and ways of life. Charles found that one of the most lasting parts of military service was the people he met along the way.

“Meeting new people, then having them become friends and family,” he said.

Those connections became part of what he valued most about his years in uniform. He met people from across the country, learned about their backgrounds, and experienced ways of life different from his own.

But leaving the military brought an unexpected adjustment.

After leaving the service in 1993, Charles returned to Oregon. Without the familiar structure of military life, he found himself missing the close bond he had shared with his fellow firefighters.

“After I left in 1993, I was lost because there was no structure,” Charles said. “It wasn’t the same as being in the military.”

The brotherhood built among his team was difficult to leave behind. As he adjusted to civilian life, his children’s activities helped give him a renewed sense of home and connection.

In 2002, Charles began exploring a return to military service. With no firefighter positions available, he rejoined through the Air National Guard and returned to active-duty service in security forces. He retired in August 2010, completing 20 years of active service.

Looking back, Charles does not point to a single accomplishment as the defining moment of his career. Instead, he remembers the people he encountered and the relationships that grew from serving alongside them.

His time in the military also shaped the way he raised his children. He wanted them to understand the importance of discipline, good manners, respect for elders, and treating others well. He encouraged them to communicate effectively, be polite, and avoid putting others down.

These were lessons he hoped would stay with his children long after they left home.

When asked what it means to see his youngest son continue the family’s military tradition, Charles did not hesitate.

“I think it’s wonderful, I am so proud” he said. “I’ve always said they should spend some time in the military. They learn so much discipline and brotherhood. I took pride in that way of life.”

Charles is especially proud that TSgt Kellerman chose to enlist and pursue a military career, following in his father’s footsteps just as Charles had followed the example of his own uncles.

For a parent, watching a child choose a familiar path can bring back memories of the decisions that shaped their own life. Charles knows the challenges that come with military service, but he also knows what it gave him: a sense of purpose, friendships that endured, and lessons he carried into fatherhood.

His family’s history reaches beyond the Air Force, too. Charles’s father-in-law, Colin Fitzgerald served in the Royal Navy, adding another country and branch of service to the family’s story.

On another side of the family, Veteran Thomas Eric Atchley followed a different path into military life.

Raised in Sylacauga, Alabama, Thomas served in the U.S. Navy from 1985 to 1996. He enlisted at age 18 as a nuclear-trained First Class Machinist’s Mate and left the service at the rank of E-6.

During his career, Thomas served aboard three submarines, including the USS George Bancroft (SSBN-643), a Benjamin Franklin-class ballistic missile submarine. His service also included a submarine repair tour in Groton, Connecticut.

Life aboard a submarine demanded trust and preparation. Sailors had to rely on one another in close quarters, knowing that every person had a role to play. Their training included responsibilities such as firefighting, line handling, and damage control, preparing them to respond when the unexpected happened.

Thomas learned by watching the people around him, taking lessons from both their successes and their mistakes.
“On a submarine, you learn pretty quickly that teamwork is everything. You have to trust the people around you and know that everyone is doing their job. There is a lot of training involved, and you learn from the people who have been there before you. Sometimes the best lessons come from watching what others do right, and sometimes you learn just as much from their mistakes.”

Military service was already part of Thomas’s family history before he enlisted. His father, Clifford Atchley served in the U.S. Air Force from 1950 to 1972, retiring as an E-8 after a final tour in Thailand near the end of the Vietnam War. His father-in-law, Frank Tracy served in the U.S. Army, adding another branch to the family’s connections to military life.

Thomas’s uncles, Earnest and Marvin, served in the military also. Their experiences helped shape the family Thomas would later raise and the way he understood military service.

“Military service was something I grew up around. My father served, and I had uncles and other family members who served before me. Hearing about their experiences helped me understand that serving was about more than putting on a uniform. It was about responsibility, sacrifice, and doing your part. Those family stories are important because they remind us that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.”

Today, Thomas sees that history continuing through his son-in-law. His own time in the Navy gave him an appreciation for the discipline, responsibility, and teamwork required of those who serve. He recognizes those qualities in TSgt Kellerman’s Air Force career.

“Ryan has stuck it out, and that says a lot about his character. Military life isn’t always easy, and staying committed takes determination and perseverance. I’m proud to see him continue serving and building a career of his own.”

The family’s military history spans different eras and branches, from World War II and the Vietnam era to the Air Force and Navy careers that followed. Each generation faced its own demands, and none experienced military life in exactly the same way.

Yet the connections between them are not difficult to see. Charles remembers the brotherhood he found among fellow firefighters. TSgt Kellerman remembers his father’s pride at his graduations. Thomas’s years aboard submarines taught him the importance of depending on the people around him.

These are different memories, but each reveals something about the relationships that form through service and the ways those experiences continue to influence family life.

Not every generation has to follow the same path for a family’s values to endure. Sometimes the legacy is carried forward through a shared profession. Other times, it lives in the lessons parents teach their children, the stories families continue to tell, and the example set by those who came before.

For Charles and Thomas, watching TSgt Kellerman serve offers an opportunity to see those lessons take shape in a new generation. For TSgt Kellerman, wearing the uniform means building a career of his own while remaining connected to the people whose service helped shape his understanding of duty.

At Minot Air Force Base, TSgt Kellerman continues his Air Force career, adding his own experiences to a family history that began long before he enlisted. His story is his own, but it is also connected to the fathers,

grandfathers, uncles, and other relatives whose choices helped make military service part of the family’s shared history.

And perhaps that is what makes service through the generations meaningful not that every person’s story is the same, but that the lessons, relationships, and memories created along the way can continue long after the uniform is put away. Different generations. Different branches. One enduring legacy of service.

Read the Full Tribute to Service feature: https://northernsentry.com/3d-flip-book/tribute-to-service-2026/