There's no better way to get ready for joining the Army than to hear advice directly from soldiers who've lived it. Through our Page, recruits are able to ask questions of other current and past soldiers and gather many different perspectives much more quickly than through phone conversations or e-mails:

Old friends from previous assignments are also able to stay in touch, or even reconnect, through Facebook. In fact, just a few weeks ago my boss, Colonel Jim Miller, told me he recently linked up with three of his Desert Storm buddies on Facebook after nearly 10 years. He found out they were living within miles of him in Washington, D.C., and was able to get together for a reunion dinner.

Military Brats
"Brats" — the term commonly associated with those who grow up in the military — often face the challenge of being separated from friends as their families move to different military bases. When I was growing up, once you left a group of friends, you were relegated to keeping in touch by writing letters or racking-up long-distance phone bills. Often times, as those friends were moving too, contact was lost and so was the friendship. Now, military children can keep in touch much easier with their friends. My kids, having spent all of their lives moving from place to place, use Facebook to connect with friends from my previous duty assignments.

Army Senior Leaders
Often people assume social networking sites are a place only for young people, but our senior Army leaders understand it's a great place for them to connect with both their older peers and the young troopers who are the backbone of the U.S. Army. An increasing number of Army senior leaders now have Facebook Pages, including General Ray Odierno, where you can stay updated on their daily activities.

The Army is embracing a new way to communicate — one that increasingly involves connecting over a social networking site as much as it means communicating about the Army through an evening news broadcast. Along with our main Army Page, other units and installations are reaching out to establish a dialogue through more than 40 other official Army unit and installation Facebook pages. You can find a lineup of all the official social media platforms for the Army here.

Facebook captures the power of relationships in a way we've only begun to explore. Whether you're a general officer or a soldier deployed to Iraq who gets a glimpse of home through a Wall post or a photo, it's a powerful medium for our community of more than 1.1 million soldiers and their spouses, family members and children.


Lieutenant Colonel Arata hopes you'll join the conversation at the U.S. Army's Facebook Page.