iPhone apps

An app created by the wife of a U.S. Marine provides handy tools to help military spouses cope with deployment stress.

Military personnel serving overseas can record a bedtime story and send it to their children for free thanks to an iPhone app called A Story Before Bed. The program offers 100,000 free recordings to help troops connect with loved ones back home.

A new iPhone app attracting close to 80,000 new users each day taps into a huge collection of live police, firefighter, aircraft, railroad, marine, emergency and ham radios.

No more guessing games when it comes to military pay. The MilPay app for the iPhone and iPad breaks down basic pay, housing allowances and special pay using official data from the Defense Department.

The latest example of augmented reality is the Plane Finder AR app, which can instantly find the flight number, speed, altitude and more of an aircraft overhead.

Outdoor enthusiasts now have access to the Defense Department's 500-page publication titled "Survival, Evasion and Recovery" with the click of a button. The iPhone app Survival Pocket Reference teaches users the survival skills implemented in the wild by the U.S. armed forces.

American Veterans (AMVETS) announced a new mobile app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and Blackberry that allows veterans to locate AMVETS posts, find their local service officer, connect with headquarters and research veterans' issues.

The Defense Department's medical branch creates an iPhone application called iBreathe to help military personnel and veterans handle stressful situations by practicing relaxed breathing.

Want to train like a Navy SEAL or learn the basics of hand-to-hand combat with the style and power of a Marine? Two iPhone apps provide the tips, tricks and training rules that go into the physical fitness of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Controlling an anti-missile system? There's an app for that. A mobile program developed for the U.S. military serves as a refresher tool for troops assigned to the Patriot anti-missile system.