Together We Served Launches Roll of Honor, Actively Seeks Families to Complete Veteran Profiles

CHATSWORTH, Calif., May 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- This Memorial Day, Together We Served (TWS) - the leading online military heritage organization devoted to honoring the service and sacrifice of U.S. veterans - is asking families of fallen heroes nationwide to help complete the TWS Roll of Honor (www.rollofhonor.togetherweserved.com), a public, virtual memorial containing detailed Remembrance Profiles of more than 100,000 soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen and coastguardsmen who died while serving in all major U.S. conflicts since WWII.

"The Roll of Honor is a gift to every family who has lost a loved one in service - a personalized online memorial they can contribute to, preserve, and share for posterity," said Brian Foster, TWS founder and president. "Our goal is to locate Americans who can help ensure the completeness and accuracy of these profiles in order to respectfully honor the service and sacrifice of the deceased service member."

To develop the site, TWS administrators compiled every publicly available service record of those who fell in Vietnam, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom campaigns, plus many more from the Korean campaign, WWII and earlier. Each highly detailed Remembrance Profile is a unique web page containing service history, medal ribbons, insignia, photos, and more that can be updated, printed out, and framed. Many of Together We Served's 1.2 million members have contributed information to the Roll of Honor, including photos and memories recalling their fallen brothers and sisters. The TWS Roll of Honor is one of the most comprehensive online presentations of our nations' fallen existing today.

Debra Booth, whose son Lt. Joshua L. Booth, USMC was killed in action in Iraq in 2006, found photographs of him on the site years after his death. "Together We Served gave us something we desperately wanted - to connect with those who served with and knew our son, and to hear stories that Josh himself would have told us had he come home safely," said Mrs. Booth. "Without this site, I doubt we would have ever seen those precious pictures. We are so pleased to know that Josh's legacy will live on for generations to come."

Major Mark Cooper, U.S. Army Special Forces (retired) and TWS Chief Administrator, has personally built more than 1,300 profiles for fallen soldiers with the help of their family members across the country. "We added as much information as we could find," said Major Cooper. "Now, we hope to locate veterans' families and provide them the opportunity to help us complete the work that we've begun to remember these fallen heroes."

HOW TO FIND YOUR RELATIVE OR LOVED ONE
This Memorial Day, families of the fallen are encouraged to find their loved ones on the TWS Roll of Honor:

1. Visit the TWS Roll of Honor (www.rollofhonor.togetherweserved.com) and click on the Service Branch Seal for your loved one.
2. Search by alphabet, or enter his/her name into the "Quicksearch" form field.
3. Locate the name and click on the link to his/her Remembrance Profile.
4. At the top of each profile, click on the link to contact a TWS administrative staff member who can assist those wishing to post additional information and/or photographs.
5. Family members who wish to update the profiles themselves may also request custodial access, so they can themselves create or update their loved one's profile to ensure its completeness and accuracy. (Where family members are unavailable, close friends may assume custody of the Remembrance Profile.)

The Marines' Memorial in San Francisco, which receives thousands of visitors annually, recently installed a special display featuring the TWS Roll of Honor. Together We Served has been in discussion with other cities and memorial organizations regarding similar remembrance installations.

Current or former members of the U.S. military and family members of deceased service persons who would like to join Together We Served can contact Military Heritage Director Denise Kincaid at [email protected] or visit TogetherWeServed.com.

ABOUT TOGETHER WE SERVED
Created by and for service members, Together We Served (TWS) is the largest exclusively military online community for U.S. veterans to reconnect with lost comrades and record their service as a lasting legacy. Since its launch as a Marine Corps website in 2003, Together We Served has expanded to include profiles of all five military branches, including U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Service members can create and share a visual history of their service from boot camp to retirement, including duty stations, battles, operations, medal ribbons (arranged as-worn), badges, photos, stories about their service, and memories of fellow service members. As a searchable military locater, TWS is reconnecting veterans, some who have not seen each other in more than 40 years. With 1.2 million members, Together We Served has reconnected more servicemen and women than any other comparable website.

http://togetherweserved.com/

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Stephanie Wolf
PR Director
(732) 322-3698
[email protected]

Brian Foster
President and Founder
(888) 398-3262
[email protected]

SOURCE TogetherWeServed.com