This collection houses correspondence, photographs, and military memorabilia documenting Clifford Edward Keenan's service and death with the 505th Parachute Infantry during World War II.

The bulk of correspondence (including letters, postcards, cards, and V-mail) is written between Keenan and his mother, father, and grandmother between October 1942 and July 1944. Other correspondence includes letters with friends, cards and postcards, military memorabilia, photographs, and photocopies of letters. There is also oversized materials including a framed photograph and some of Keenan's military decorations including a campaign ribbon awarded to soldiers who served in at least one D-Day Invasion event where they were under fire and participated in a naval landing.

Also included in the collection is a bound volume entitled "World War II Letters of Private Clifford Edward Keenan." The book is composed of transcriptions of Keenan's letters written him and his immediate family from 1942 to 1944. Editor Hugh T. Keenan (Clifford's younger brother) also included a brief biographical introduction and numerous photographs of the Keenan family.