One of the things we’re working on behind the scenes is to build an Internet radio station that focuses exclusively on music that either carries a ’support the troops’ message, or that the families of men and women killed on active duty might be able to take comfort in.

As we think of (or become aware of) songs that might be a good fit for the project, we begin a process of contacting the songwriters and owners of the publishing rights to ask permission to use the song on our streaming station.

We do this because - as you know - the National Virtual Memorial doesn’t accept any advertising, and we don’t charge for access; so paying the royalties that would be associated with these songs would prevent us from being able to run the station at all.

If you are an artist who has a song we can use, or you’re just a fan who thinks of a song that would fit, by all means add it to the Comments section below.

As soon as we have enough songs, we’ll launch the station.  We have a number of them now, but we need more.

First, we have made the user interface a little more friendly, particularly the site navigation menu at the top of the pages.

Second, we have a new and improved “Guestbook” feature that allows visitors to leave comments that will be permanently attached to individual memorials.

We hope these additions and the other things we’re working on behind the scenes combine to make the National Virtual Memorial an even better place to remember your loved ones.

The message forum is inaccessible to the general public, and is there for technical support, meeting other Gold Star families, and whatever other uses you can dream up.

The member forum will be shown as a link from the “Links” menu on the right sidebar; the link is only visible when you’re logged in.

As with everything, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

But maybe you hate it.  Maybe it doesn’t help you in any way, shape, or form, to communicate to the world what your hero was all about.

We are in the process of rolling out what will become a library of over 100 themes that members will be able to choose from when putting their memorial pages together.

As they become available, we’ll make sure to let you know.

The Gold Star Family Foundation proudly presents this permanent shrine to our armed forces, that the brave military men and women who have laid down their lives for something larger than self may have a place online more worthy of their sacrifice, and the families left behind might find the tools suited to building a more personal tribute.

If your family has lost someone on active duty during Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom, they have a memorial page already created on this site; the simplest way to locate them is to try their last name in the search box at the right. After you arrive there, you’re invited to contact us so you can take over the maintenance of the page and create your own personal memorial.

There is no catch. We don’t charge for access. We don’t accept advertising. We don’t sell anyone’s information. We’re not an automated site that was put up simply to attract web traffic. And we’re not going anywhere. Ever.

We are rapidly working on adding photos and information to the default pages for each service member, and adding heroes from past conflicts as well. If there are features you think we should add, by all means get in touch and let us know how we can help.