Subject: Navy Unveils Web Site For Military Personnel

Partnership Will Serve All Branches

By Ben White

Special to The Washington Post

Thursday, January 28, 1999; Page A25

The Navy unveiled an ambitious, glossy new multimedia Web site yesterday

to help far-flung military personnel and their families get a wide array

of information and services.

Although a Navy project, the site is designed to aid service members in

all branches of the armed forces, domestically and around the globe.

Navy Secretary Richard Danzig launched the site, saying it would go a long

way toward offering comprehensive information to a dispersed military

population. "There is no organization in the world that has people that

are so widespread," Danzig said.

The site, www.lifelines4qol.org, was developed for the military by TRW

Systems & Information Technology Group of Fairfax and is designed to offer

basic textual information and gather several video technologies being used

by the armed forces to distribute information, including satellite

broadcasting, cable television and video conferencing. The official

launching of the Web site was beamed live on the Internet from a

state-of-the-art Navy television studio.

Visitors to the site will be able to enter a virtual "mall" offering

information on military medical services, crisis counseling, personal

financial management, chaplain services, pay schedules, career assistance,

educational materials, deployment information and "leisure pursuits,"

including a newsstand as well as audio and video content. Large portions

of the site, however, remain under construction and are currently

unavailable.

TRW designed the site for a military partnership led by the Navy but also

including the Marines, Coast Guard and Defense Department's Executive

Committee on Quality of Life. LIFELines Executive Director Randy N.

Eltringham said she expects the Army to join as a partner in the site in

the near future.

The military has spent some $500,000 thus far to create the site's basic

architecture, Eltringham said, and has $5 million in contributions from

the partners to add new features.

Military officials and enlisted personnel at the launching of the site

said it would be particularly useful for families dealing with the

logistical mazes of relocations and new deployments and for reservists who

are not in regular day-to-day contact with their respective branches of

the service.

c Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company