We all want to give due recognition to services rendered by military men and women. There are lots of ways recognizing by donating to veterans organizations, helping military spouses cope with an absent husband or wife, or by simply shaking their hands when you bump into them on the street. And if you have a business, you try to give some generous discounts to them and their families, as the service people are not really some of best well-paid in the world.

Such discounts and deals to military personnel would go a long way to help them stretch their budgets. Some have left their well-paying jobs to answer the call of duty and thus, would be living on budgets that can be considered to be shoe-string. While it is easy to give discounts offline as many business owners usually know who is the military person in their local communities, it cannot be translated easily online as shops and companies do not have a fool-proof way of identifying who is a real service personnel to one who is a poser.

And speaking of posers, there are lots of them, trying to lay their hands on the benefits accorded to real service people, or get some perks that goes with the uniform. Just go to Stolen Valor and you'll see this list of people who have been exposed to be faking their service. We have to admit that even in the airsoft community, there are some people who claim to have been in the service even if they haven't, and since we all have the gear and even the patches, insignias, and even some photos, some people who would try to take advantage, to the point of even stealing identities. And the more "elite" the unit, even the better the perks, so we find these fake veterans or soldiers claiming to come from the special operations community.

Thus, Troop ID was launched to help companies and brands to connect to the military community to offer special discounts and benefits to show their appreciation. Founded by Blake Hall, the co-founder of Troop Swap, which helps find deals for military personnel and their spouses, Troop ID works like this:

Troop ID is groundbreaking technology that allows you to digitally verify your military credentials to military-friendly brands and government agencies in order to claim discounts and benefits. Once you complete the Troop ID verification process, your military credentials will attach to the e-mail and password you used while signing up for Troop ID. Keep an eye out for the Troop ID logo at participating brand websites like Under Armour and Overstock while you're shopping online in order to claim military discounts with your Troop ID.

For those who have been in the internet long enough, this is almost like a "single sign-on" scheme but designed for military personnel. While a single sign-on scheme is a convenience, allowing you to login at websites without always entering your username and password, Troop ID is a widget that frees up the military person from going through a tedious verification process as he or she goes to websites to get some good deals.

Troop ID is a helpful service that’s truly needed by the military community and preventing posers from taking advantage of schemes designed for them as recognition for their service. Interested companies can sign-up with Troop ID and it opens up a world of 24 million potential customers which comprise the U.S. military community. And if you have been in the service, then you better put your credentials for easier and faster verification with Troop ID, and from their shopping for those military deals would be as just quick as the click of the mouse button.