I haven’t had a chance to blog about the website that I launched in February: www.182ndinfantry.org. The site tells the story of an Army rifle company serving in the Pacific in World War II. Development of this site was my first real experience with complex web design. The content was pulled from my research on the unit, Company G of the 182nd Infantry Regiment. My grandfather, Ed Monahan, served with this unit of the Americal Division for over 4 years, through 4 combat campaigns. I’ve spent 7 years researching the unit’s history, and this site was my first opportunity to share my results with the world.
I’ve been floored by the response to the site. I wasn’t sure if people would find it – and even if they did, would they find it interesting? The answer seems to be a resounding yes. I’ve had several thousand visitors over the past 4 months, from somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 countries. The image below shows the countries that have sent visitors to my site:
And these visitors are intrigued by what they find: the average visitor spends almost 7 minutes on the site, and looks at about 8 pages. I frequently have visitors spend up to an hour on the site, clicking on more than 100 links per visit. I’ve even been contacted by several soldiers who are currently serving in the 182nd Infantry (a Massachusetts National Guard unit) to tell me that the soldiers of the unit have been scrutinizing the site and learning about the men who served before them.
I couldn’t be happier with how this project has turned out.
