Databases and resources abound for covering war-related stories, but organizing them in a useful way can be a challenge. At IRE's recent Annual Computer-Assisted Reporting Conference in Charlotte, several speakers slotted the resources into these categories.
Military and security
The U.S. Census Bureau has an enormous amount of data on the military, veterans, educational background of military and so on. Summary File 3 of the Census 2000 release is jam-packed with information. You can use American Factfinder (http://factfinder.census.gov) to zero in on what you need. National Guard and reserves deployment data can be obtained from the Defense Department DefenseLink Web site in Adobe Acrobat format at www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2003/d20030409ngr.pdf. Check the DefenseLink news releases section for updated lists.