This story was corrected Jan. 25, 2012. An explanation follows the story.

Wounded and ill servicemen and women at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and four other military hospitals may now stay in touch with loved ones with ease thanks, in part, to Rockville native Carrie Laureno.

Google, where Laureno works in the marketing department, donated 600 Chromebooks — fast-acting laptop computers — to the American Red Cross in October. The Red Cross then distrubuted the computers to Walter Reed, Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Virginia, Womack Army Medical Center in North Carolina, Navy Medical Center San Diego in California and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

The initiative came from the Google Veterans Network, which consists of nearly 500 Google employees who are either veterans or want to support the veterans community. Laureno, a Thomas Wootton High School graduate, founded the group in November 2007, nine days after her boyfriend was killed in Afghanistan.

“We’ve created an environment that enables that type of support,” Laureno said. “And that alone is important to the people who are a part of that.”

The network helped create tools to help servicemembers connect with one another and their families, including VetConnect, which connects veterans on Google+, a social networking site. Upcoming tools include a Tour Builder, with which veterans can use a satellite map to upload photos and videos and track the paths of their tours of duty.

“I feel that there’s an immense satisfaction there that we’re doing something for as many people as we can,” Laureno said.

To learn more visit, www.googleforveterans.com.

Correction: Carrie Laureno attended Thomas Wootton High School.