You, too, can become a friend of the U.S. Pacific Command, the people who manage U.S. security interests from Hawai'i to India. Or you could "tweet" your thoughts to the Northern Command, which is responsible for defending the continental U.S.

Both military commands are using social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and MySpace to reach the public and tell their stories to those less likely to read the newspaper and watch television news.

Many of the sites are well-known for facilitating teenage gossip and reconnecting old college friends years after graduation. But the sites are increasingly becoming places where friends and colleagues trade information and share ideas.

"It's part of the way you communicate now," said Navy Capt. Jeff Breslau, a U.S. Pacific Command spokesman. "There's no reason why we can't talk directly to the public, and now we have the tools to do it."

The Pacific Command's Flickr photo collection — which debuted last week — shows American B-52 bombers flying in formation with Japanese fighter jets during exercises off Guam. Its Facebook page features news articles about international drills in Thailand.

The command, which oversees 300,000 troops, had only 80 "fans" on Facebook as of Friday. But officials hope more people will sign on when they hear about the Pacific Command page.

Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command gained more than 3,000 followers when they posted Twitter updates on Santa's whereabouts last Christmas Eve.

NORAD has been keeping children informed about Santa's sleigh since 1955. But this was the first time it used Twitter.

"Santa and his sleigh just zipped under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA! Did anyone spot him through the fog?" one of the notes said.

There are likely to be more serious Twitter uses for Northern Command, which coordinates the military's disaster response for most of the U.S.

Michael Kucharek, a NORAD and Northern Command spokes- man, said he anticipates sending "tweets" to hurricane victims to let them know where to find emergency water trucks.

"During Hurricane Katrina, while cell phones didn't work, text messaging and e-mail worked through BlackBerry," Kucharek said. "This is one more way of getting information to people in the event of an emergency."

There's a lot of room on social networking pages for comments, so it's easy to imagine critics — anti-war activists, for example — peppering military sites with complaints.

Lt. Cmdr. Chuck Bell, Pacific Command spokesman, said that's OK.

"That's all part of the dialogue that takes place in the social media realm. We're prepared for that," Bell said. "We hope the social media tools may give us an opportunity to respond to those sentiments."

Pacific Command has no plan to remove anything from its pages, except for posts that are offensive or classified, Bell said.