Connect With the Past; Bring Military History to Life

During a season usually focused on peace, many around the world are instead focused on war.

The Web offers everything from details of current and historic battles to ways to relive wars past.

Every branch of uniformed services has a site, from the Army to the merchant marine to the U.S. Border Patrol. A good general site is www.military.com, which includes military news culled from newspapers and other sources across the country.

The site also lets users look up installations by branch and location. For instance, the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps base’s Air Ground Combat Center is three-quarters the size of Rhode Island.

Active-service members and veterans can find online resources as well. Military.com has a page linking to the various branches of the military.

Or go directly to the source, the Department of Defense, at www.defenselink.mil. The site offers official releases, links to the branches, a defense almanac--all things military.

Have a special interest? Check out the Special Forces Search Engine at www .sfahq.com. Beyond the patriotic organ music, the site includes links to everything from museums to international forces such as Jamaica’s Constabulary Force.

At www.torget.se/users/k/klix/grader_e .html, visitors can peruse the ranks of enlisted men and women around the globe.

U.S. service members and veterans looking to reconnect with military pals can visit www.usmc.mil/reunions/reunions.nsf /approved, which lists reunions of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.

Friday marked the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. National Geographic offers a multimedia presentation at plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pearl harbor, complete with timelines, details and personal stories.

The Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs Office maintains a site, www.hawaii.navy .mil/dec7/dec72001, listing events relating to the anniversary, with pictures and firsthand accounts of the attack.

At www.123world.com/wars, there are details about battles known and obscure, such as the Maine event--the 1839 Aroostook War.

Yahoo has a more complete directory of military history links at dir.yahoo.com/arts/humanities/history/by_subject /military_history/wars.

The War Times Journal offers a portal at www.wtj.com/portal that focuses on warfare and military issues. Don’t bother to look for pacifism here.

A work in progress is www.history guy.com/War_list.html. Although the site is incomplete, the information it provides is worthy of notice.

If exploring details online doesn’t bring military history to life, check out reenactments and war-gaming at www.soldierand war.com. The site offers explanations and connects enthusiasts with others re-creating the past.

And if you aren’t getting enough wartime coverage, you can check out www.newseum.org/warstories to get a sense of what it’s like to be a war correspondent.

The Newseum site details how front-line coverage and the technology of news has changed from war to war.

There is some focus on peace too. Untreaty.un.org displays more than 40,000 treaties and international agreements registered or filed, recorded with and published by the United Nations Secretariat since 1946.

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Michelle Maltais is a multimedia producer at The Times. She can be reached at michelle.maltais@latimes.com.