If you've got Google Earth installed, I recommend you look at this (it's a downloadable .kmz file):
http://bbs.keyhole.com/...
If you don't have Google Earth installed, you can go here to get it (it's free):
http://earth.google.com/...
If you do this, you'll hopefully understand why I'm recommending this Google Earth project (.kmz file). If you otherwise want to know why I recommend you do this, feel free to read below . . .
I'm an unabashed Google Earth (GE) evangelist who frequents the BBS (
http://bbs.keyhole.com/...) set up to support and discuss the application. In my browsing I ran across GE user purblind_horus's post of a Google Earth .kmz file (requires GE to open):
Updated! US/Coalition Casualites: Iraq & Afghanistan
I've found that presenting information geospatially, as purblind_horus, and others who help him, a gives a dimension to information that's not normally there. It gives a dimension to the dead I don't normally sense in other media.
I use Google Earth to silently cruise and explore the lonely countryside of Eastern Washington State where I was a child, long, long ago. I'm almost crying as I see names of those who are gone quietly crop up next to small, colored dots.
And then I click on them one at a time. I've seen the lists before. I've looked up casualties in databases. I've downloaded the mosaics of the dead in the shape of the President's head.
But there's something about connecting a name to a PLACE, a TOWN, and more, seeing the mountains, rivers, valleys, deserts, grass, and roads from a satellite's viewpoint (heaven?). Seeing the names in the world, the homes, of those killed adds . . . I don't know what. It's earth. Our home. Just something sad. I don't write many diaries, just at times when I get particularly depressed. Like now. And heck, I'm sober.
Just three examples.
The first (Clint) has my older brother's name.
The second (Jacob) has a nephew's name.
The third (Jeremiah) is from the town where I was born.
Clint
Chief Warrant Officer Clint J. Prather
32 yrs. old from Cheney, Washington, US
Jacob
Sergeant Jacob H. Demand
29 yrs. old from Palouse, Washington
Jeremiah
Specialist Jeremiah W. Schmunk
21 yrs. old from Richland, Washington
I'm a reference librarian. I refer people to things.