Military Web sites drawing heavy hits

By Russell Shaw
Gannett News Service

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Armed services sites Each of the armed services maintains a robust site. Here's a quick guide: The Air Force site has basic information about the branch, a section about career opportunities and links to sites for specific Air Force bases. For example, the Barksdale, La., Air Force Base site includes information about the B-52 bombers based there. The Army site offers news headlines, features and links to a robust career site with comprehensive information on the 212 "Military Occupational Specialties" the Army offers. The Coast Guard site has sections on homeland security and port and waterway security. Its jobs site has career information, including such national defense-related fields as port security specialist. The Marine Corps site has a news section with video clips. The site also offers a recruiting section with e-mail links to recruiting stations. The National Guard site offers news updates, as well as Army and Air National Guard career information, searchable by specialty and state. The Navy site contains sections devoted to specific bases and stations. For example, the Naval Air Station Pensacola's site has pages about the Blue Angels flying team, which is based there. There also is a link to a career site that has a ZIP-code searchable recruiter finder and information on hundreds of specialties.

In years past, the native of Hastings, Neb., would have visited a recruiting station and collected a small library of printed brochures to learn about a military career. Instead, Perches used the Internet to research his options in the armed forces.

"Enlisting in the military seemed like a great opportunity to serve my country," Perches said. "I began visiting the 'dot-mil' sites, and I asked a lot of questions about the process(es) of schooling and advancement," he said.

Sites with the suffix .mil are operated by one of the branches of the military just as the .com suffix identifies commercial sites.

Recent data from Nielsen/NetRatings, which measures Web site traffic, suggest a spike in popularity for some military and military-themed Web sites. For example, the number of visitors to the Air Force's site (www.af.mil) rose from 573,000 visitors in April to 609,000 visitors in May and 757,000 in June.

Nielsen/NetRatings attributed a good bit of this momentum to "savvy marketing and recruiting techniques as well as timely and useful news and information" on the flagship sites of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

The military hosts dozens of sites, and third parties host thousands more. In its directory, for example, Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) lists more than 2,300 sites about the U.S. military. The 29 specific categories encompass areas such as careers, special tactics and operations, and issues of interest to women.

Taken in total, the increase in military Web site visits is more than just a statistical phenomenon. According to Perches, who is now a seaman apprentice in the Navy, there is a lot of emotion at work.

"It's a combination of curiosity, respect, and for those like me, (people) who want more information on the paths we have chosen for our future," he said.