Interactive Maps Honors Fallen Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan
CNN reports that a Google engineer has created an interactive map using Google Earth that shows where and how each U.S. service member died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Map the Fallen website can be found here.
The new Google Earth layer, called Map the Fallen, enables the user to pinpoint where, when, and how each service member died since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. A line connects the service member's approximate location of death to his or her hometown.
The interactive tool -- available at mapthefallen.org -- also offers a detailed profile of each person.
Sean Askay, a Google engineer with no military affiliation who developed the layer in his free time, explains the project on his blog.
"I have created a map for Google Earth that will connect you with each of their stories -- you can see photos, learn about how they died, visit memorial Web sites with comments from friends and families, and explore the places they called home and where they died," he writes.
CNN says the Google Earth layer shows ach U.S. and coalition troop death chronologically. CNN's John King says the idea behind the virtual memorial is to remember and pay tribute to the soldiers who have died.
