I know, I know, veterans are not one to brag or whatever, so maybe this article is best delivered to a proactive member of a military family. The fact is, military service is unique, significant, and interesting, and it deserves to be remembered. It can also be disorienting and only understood by fellow vets.
Enter Together We Served.
Together We Served (TWS) is the leading online community that connects and honors every American who has worn the uniform of the United States military. Veterans can reconnect with old service friends and share their service story as a lasting legacy for generations to come.
President and Founder Brian Foster launched TWS in 2003 specifically for Marine Corps veterans. In the two decades since, it has expanded to all branches and now serves over 2.5 million service members.
One of the most critical—and completely cost-free—services TWS provides is called Veteran Buddy Link, which assists veterans who, due to their location or circumstances, may find themselves in a state of loneliness. They can connect with other veterans in friendship and support, even those who are physically living nearby.
“Those who have served share a unique bond that remains with them throughout their lives,” Foster wrote for VA News. “Veterans are naturally drawn to and thrive in the company of other veterans because the unique culture of military service and the commitment to service and sacrifice is common to all.
After the close-knit living conditions, shared purpose, and camaraderie of military service, it can be disorienting and isolating for veterans to find themselves in the civilian world. Many have struggled with this alone. Together We Served and the Veteran Buddy Link program offer a solution to those potentially debilitating feelings by offering veterans a way to securely connect with others who understand the nuances of military service.”
The TWS Buddy Finder program enables service members to reconnect with friends they served with. All they have to do is input their service information, such as which units they served with and the years they served in those units. The database will automatically connect veterans to those who were there at the same time.
“The secret behind this high rate of success is the depth of TWS’s hand-built databases that contain hundreds of U.S. military units, ships, squadrons, and bases going back to World War II,” Foster told We Are The Mighty. “Any veteran can register for free, and the TogetherWeServed.com search engine can help take care of the rest. With more and more veterans registering, connections and reminiscings grow every day.”
Another cool offering from Together We Served is a free plaque commemorating a veteran’s military service, along with a detailed online record that includes unlimited photographs. This is a special way for families to honor service members and for vets themselves to look back on their time in uniform with pride. The Military Service Plaque itself features key service information, period-accurate graphics, and a wide choice of era-specific backgrounds in a distinctive and attractive layout.
For a myriad of reasons, it can be tricky to get veterans across any generation to talk about their military service, but Foster notes that veterans can participate as little or as much as they want.
“A vet’s military service memories captured in their own words and photographs is one of the most valuable legacies a former service member can provide for his or her family,” he observed.
For this reason, Together We Served created a guided questionnaire and specially designed interface called “Service Reflections” to make it easy for veterans and their family members to record memories of key people and events from their service.
From the story of Army veteran Robert Pryor, who managed to find and reconnect with the pilot who saved his life, to Gold Star Families remembering their deceased loved ones, to veterans connecting with new friends and improving their quality of life, Together We Served exists for the military community. It is run on a shoestring budget by veterinarians who are passionate about celebrating service and helping one another.
Together We Served is the internet’s largest U.S. military veteran directory and service history archive, and it’s totally free for veterans to check out the website and preserve their memories.
