What you need to know
Families and soldiers alike hope that while they are deployed overseas, nothing dramatic happens back at home.
However, if a family member suddenly falls ill or unexpectedly passes away, it is important that you have a way to inform your deployed soldier quickly. This is where the American Red Cross's emergency communications service can help you.
Red Cross messages are sent directly from your local Red Cross chapter or station to the one at your soldier's location, and a case worker there will inform your soldier's chain of command as soon as the message arrives.
This Red Cross service is not to be used to send updates, requests for replacing an expired power of attorney, or any other messages that do not constitute a direct family emergency. Only emergency messages are to be sent through this system. Remember, for each non-emergency message you send, another soldier may not get his message quickly.
A lot of the time, emergency messages are sent in the case of the death of a
loved one or serious illness. Soldiers may want to, or are encouraged by their
family to, take emergency leave to return home and attend the funeral or be
present at the hospital. While, in most cases, this is possible, emergency leave
is granted at the unit commander's discretion, and is generally only given in
case of death or illness of an immediate
family member, such as a spouse, child, or parent.
Red Cross emergency messages
If your family is experiencing an emergency during your soldier's deployment - such as the death or serious illness of a family member or the birth of a new baby - you can send a message to your soldier through the Red Cross communication service.
You can get in touch with the Red Cross service either by going to your local Red Cross station on post where you will be able to speak in person with one of their trained case workers. If there's no Red Cross station near you, you can also contact the Red Cross emergency message service through their website, which is located at www.redcross.org/services/afes/comm.html.
Before you contact the Red Cross, please make sure that you have the following information on hand since you will need it in order to have a message sent to your soldier -
- service member's full name - first name, middle name, last name
- service member's rank or rating
- branch of service your member is serving in
- service member's social security number
- service member's military address
- information about the deployed unit and the home base unit