“Though he steadfastly refuses to share his personal war experiences, my grandfather notes with pride that about 40 percent of the military-age Jewish male population of Canada enrolled for active service, most of them volunteers who were dispatched overseas,” Mr. Heller wrote.

Lauren Katzenberg, who edits At War, told me that historical articles exploring families’ experiences in past wars are among the many new features that have been introduced since the forum was officially relaunched last year.

But the evolution started well before that. After initially supplementing coverage of conflict, At War grew into a venue for service members, veterans, military families, policymakers and others connected to the military to weigh in on relevant issues, said an earlier editor, James Dao, who is now Op-Ed editor for The Times.

After a brief hiatus, C.J. Chivers, a former infantry officer in the United States Marines and one of The Times’s most prominent war correspondents, championed a revival of At War in yet another form.