"Bravo Zulu" to Ancestry.com!

Dating back before radio communications, it has been a long time Naval tradition to use signal flags for communicating between ships within visual range.  There is a flag for each letter in the alphabet.  Combining the "B" and "Z" (Bravo & Zulu) means "well done".  Certainly among naval personnel, and even reaching into the civilian world; the term Bravo Zulu is often used to praise someone for a job well done.

The Son's of the American Revolution (SAR) started the Operation Ancestry Search (OAS) program at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center with the support of Ancestry.com.  The program's  purpose is to get Wounded Warriors and their medical staff involved in genealogical research.  To facilitate their research, Ancestry provides each participant with a year's subscription to their new World Explorer Plus data base, which includes Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com and Fold3--a $398 value!  The SAR provide beginning genealogy and Ancestry.com instruction to the service personnel, as well as one-on-one ongoing volunteer support by local genealogists to assist the service personnel in their research.

The San Diego SAR Chapter, with support from the San Diego genealogical community, recently extended the OAS program to Wounded Warriors at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego.  Once again Ancestry provided free subscriptions to all participating Wounded Warriors and staff to their World Explorer Plus data base.  Additionally, they provided them with copies of their genealogical software Family Tree Maker which enables the service personnel to record and manipulate the data on their personal computers.

To my knowledge, Ancestry hasn't sought any publicity for their participation in this program.  However, I think they; along with The Son's of the American Revolution, should be given a hearty "Bravo Zulu" by those of us within the genealogical community for supporting this very worthwhile program.