When Balkoski moved to Maryland in 1981, by chance he met many residents who were veterans of the D-Day invasion, all members of the 29th Infantry Division, which spearheaded the assault. His first book,
Beyond the Beachhead: The 29th Infantry Division in Normandy, was published in 1988 and remains in print nearly forty years later. Balkoski's highly detailed series on the history of the 29th Division in World War II closed in 2015 with the publication of the fifth volume,
The Last Roll Call, which recounts the end of the war in Europe and the GIs' return to civilian life. In 2004, Balkoski published
Omaha Beach, which meticulously documented the June 6, 1944, American invasion of that pivotal Normandy objective. Two years later, he released
Utah Beach, which documented the amphibious and airborne operation in Normandy's Cotentin Peninsula on D-Day.
Military and academia Balkoski served for many years as the Command Historian of the Maryland National Guard, and founded the 29th Infantry Division Archives and
Maryland Museum of Military History, both at the
Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore, housing one of the finest collections in the United States of archival papers devoted to the World War II history of a single U.S. Army or Marine Corps division. In 2014, he designed the exhibit "When Freemen Shall Stand" at the Maryland Museum of Military History, which focused on the defense of Baltimore by Maryland citizen-soldiers in September 1814 against an attack by a British expeditionary force, an event that led to the writing of "
The Star-Spangled Banner." In 2017, the 100th anniversary of American entry into World War I, he created the exhibit "Over There," portraying the life of Marylanders both overseas and on the home front during the Great War. He has served as an adjunct professor in both the history and writing departments at the University of Baltimore and the Community College of Baltimore County. He frequently conducts battlefield staff rides in the U.S. and Europe for U.S. Army soldiers as part of their military training. Balkoski currently serves on the National Executive Committee of the 29th Division Association, which formulates and executes policy in support of all 29th Division veterans and their families; and the Maryland Military Monuments Commission, which oversees hundreds of military monuments within the state. In 2023, the U.S. Army Chief of Infantry awarded him the National Infantry Association's Order of St. Maurice for his lifetime of service to American soldiers in all eras. ==Reception==