Memorial Day Mashup

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If you're looking for a techie business tip today, then please come back tomorrow. It's Memorial Day and I think it's important to actually honor the day and,more importantly, honor those that give meaning to the day - those that gave their lives serving our country.

Another year has passed in our prosecution of not one, but two, ground wars in the Middle East. Both have now lasted longer than World War II. Fortunately, the casualties remain not nearly as high. Still for those that have lost a loved one; when it's your loved one then that is one too many.

I point you to a Google Earth map mashup that is must-see satellite imagery today. It was developed by a member of the Google Earth Outreach team and shows the locations of both hometowns and where more than 5700 U.S. and Coalition forces have died since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Click on an icon of the fallen and it will give you a thumbnail profile of the name of the soldier, age (typically in their 20's I noticed) and how they died.

It is somber and chilling and sad.

And the least we can do, the vast majority of us who remain untouched by these wars while a very small percentage of us pay such high prices in personal sacrifices, is look.

In the meantime, I say a special thanks to Google Earth Outreach and this project called mapthefallen.org.

We'll get back to business tomorrow. May our soldiers in harms way come home soon and join us. I would much rather write about them on one of the other 364 days of the year than next Memorial Day.

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio