Net tracks down shipmates

INDIALANTIC, Fla. Tim VeArd jogs down Bahama Avenue three times aweek.

But until recently, the Navy veteran and software entrepreneur hadno idea he was jogging past a house owned by one of the buddies hehad been trying, in vain, to find.

"I was trying to find anybody who had served with me," said VeArd,55, who was on the Robert E. Lee, a Polaris submarine, from 1965 to1970. So he turned to the Internet for help.

He found one of his shipmates, Mike Hartung, online.

As it turns out, Hartung had become a postal carrier after hissubmarine service.

In fact, he had delivered mail to VeArd's house without everseeing his old pal. And VeArd had jogged past Hartung's house threetimes a week without ever knowing Hartung lived there.

"It blew me away," said VeArd, former president of VeArd ComputerResearch (www.veard.com). "It stunned me that we were less than twoblocks from each other, and we were both upset that it took all thoseyears to find one another."

So they went looking for the others online. They found 15 wholived within a few miles of them and 35 more who lived in Florida.

VeArd went one step further, starting a Web site last month, DeckLog (www.deck log.com), to help other Navy veterans find their lostpals.

Deck Log contains information about every Navy ship that hassailed since 1930. Visitors can search the database using thesailor's name, but they must fill out a free registration form to seethe sailor's full address information, before and after pictures,highlights of their Navy service, what they did after the Navy andwhat they're doing now.

There already are nearly 13,000 names in the database.

Using the Internet to find lost comrades is a growing trend, saidRon Martini, a Navy veteran in Sheridan, Wyo., who runs a Web site,U.S. Submarine Veterans Inc. (www.ussvi.org). The Web site, whichrequires free registration, is geared toward submarine veterans only.

Sites maintained by U.S. governmental agencies are not allowed toprovide information on private citizens because of privacy laws.

For instance, while the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation has a largeWeb site (www.lonesailor.org/locate.html) designed to help Navyveterans find lost shipmates, it can by law list only the names ofits donors.

There are no such constraints on private individuals, however.Already, a handful of Web sites have been put up to fill the void.

In addition to the efforts of VeArd and Martini, they include theLost and Found (grunt.space.swri.edu/lostfnd.htm), a site gearedtoward Vietnam veterans, and the Veterans Alumni Association (www.webstart.net/va/), which includes all veterans.