Are you one of millions of United States Navy veterans? You may not be nostalgic for swabbing the deck or standing watch, but there's a good chance you'd like to reconnect with some of the great friends you made back then, and the Internet makes things a lot easier. If your civilian friends and family are sick of your sea stories, it may be time to raise anchor and get underway with some research.
Check the cruise books of the ships on which you served. Most ships publish "cruise books," which are the Navy versions of class yearbooks; get yours out. If you can't find it, see if the historians at the Naval History and Heritage Command (history.navy.mil) can help you out. Their website lists the cruise books they have in their library.
Cruise on over to Decklog (decklog.com), a site that lets you search for old Navy buddies by name, ship, association, school, boot camp or other outfit. Register with them so that others can find you.
Look for reunions. Bow Wake (bowwake.com./navy_reunions) is a helpful Navy reunion site on the web. Also look for websites that specialize in a certain type of ship reunion, like Tin Can Sailors (destroyers.org), the Patrol Gunboat Reunion Association (gunboatriders.com) or Submarine Sailor (submarinesailor.com).
