The Mad Genealogist

On the eve of Memorial Day, Ancestry.com is making its entire U.S. Military Collection — the largest online collection of American military records — available for free to the public. From May 20 through May 31, people can log on to http://www.ancestry.com/military to view more than 100 million names and 700 titles and databases of military records, the majority of which come from NARA, from all 50 U.S. states.

They list some of their Feature Databases which are:

• U.S. Navy Cruise Books – Yearbook-style books detailing sailors and others on board U.S. navy ships, dating from 1940
• WWII Missing in Action or Lost at Sea – More than 80,000 names of Military Personnel reported Missing in Action or Buried at Sea during WWII
• Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Veterans, 1879-1903 – Details for more than 166,000 gravestones provided by the government for deceased Union veterans
• U.S. War Bounty Land Warrants – Over 76,000 Bounty land warrants issued between 1789-1858 to veterans of the U.S. Revolutionary War and the War of 1812
• U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 – Records detailing personal information about men who enlisted in the U.S. Army from 1798-1914
• World War I Draft Registration Cards – Draft registration cards for more than 24 million men who registered for the WWI draft in 1917 and 1918
• World War II Draft Registration Cards – Almost 6 million draft cards of men who registered for the fourth WWII draft in 1942
• U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records – Collection of more than 8 million names of U.S. Army enlistees during WWII, 1938-1946
• U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865 – Collection of military service records, containing more than 6 million names of servicemen – Union and Confederate – who fought in the U.S. Civil War, 1860-1865
• U.S. Veterans Gravesites ca. 1775-2006 – Burial and grave site information for almost 3.5 million veterans of the U.S. military, 1775-2006

Obviously they have many more databases span all the Major conflicts the U.S. has been in. It is well worth the time to browse their stuff while it is open to the public.