Map the Fallen: Honoring U.S. Troops Through Google Earth

Map the Fallen, a project created to honor fallen troops through Google Earth technology, is launching in honor of Memorial Day this week. The system includes photos and information about more than 5,700 men and women who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Map the Fallen

Map the Fallen was started by a content developer with the Google Earth Outreach team. Using Google Earth, it allows users to sift through thousands of photos, then click on any to see how and where that person died, visit their memorial Web site, and peruse comments left by their family and friends.

Map the Fallen utilizes data from several sources, including the Department of Defense’s Statistical Information Analysis Division, icasualties.org, MilitaryTimes.com’s Honor the Fallen, Washington Post’s Faces of the Fallen, the Iraq and Afghanistan Pages, and Legacy.com. Its data goes all the way through March of this year.

“I recognize that this map is just a slice of the story in these conflicts,” its creator says. “The Iraqi and Afghani people have incurred substantial civilian losses through these wars; there are also U.S. and Coalition civilians, contractors, and reporters who have died as well.”

You can read more about the Map the Fallen project here and can download its software here. Note that you need to have Google Earth 5.0 installed for the program to work.