Armed Forces Emergency Services
Today's American Red
Cross is keeping pace with the changing military. Featuring the latest in
computer and telecommunications technology, the American Red Cross
Emergency Service Center delivers around-the-clock emergency communication
services to active duty military personnel and their families.
While serving 1.4
million active duty personnel, the Red Cross Get To Know Us Before You Need
Us campaign reaches out to an additional 1.5 million members of the
National Guard and the Reserves living in almost every neighborhood in
America.
American Red Cross
Emergency Services are available to all members of the armed services, and
to their families. Both active duty and community-based military can count
on the Red Cross to provide emergency communications, emergency financial
assistance, counseling, veterans assistance and aid in the field where Red
Cross workers are deployed to serve with America's military.
If you're experiencing
a family emergency (a death in the family or serious illness) and need to
contact your service member, call 1-800-540-2000 to speak with
someone in Emergency Services. Please make sure that you have your service
member's military address, social security number and the name, address,
and phone number for the relative who is either sick or deceased prior to
your call.
FAST FACTS
How do we do it?
« 24-hour,
7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year emergency communication services reaching
military installations, embassies and ships at sea around the world
« 26,831 volunteers
serving in Red Cross chapters throughout the United States and on military
installations worldwide
« A worldwide emergency
communication network with two Armed Forces Emergency Centers, 961 chapters
across the nation and offices on 108 military installations
How did we perform
in 2002?
« 476,956 incoming
calls received in the Armed Forces Emergency Service Centers.
« 732,004 outgoing
calls from the Armed Forces Emergency Services Center.
« 74,524 email messages
transmitted by the Armed Forces Emergency Service Centers.
« $4,143,625 in
emergency financial aid to 4,145 service members, their families, retired
military personnel and widows of retired military personnel in partnership
with the military aid societies.
« $376,371 in emergency
financial aid to 477 National Guard and Reserve members through the
American Red Cross National Guard Assistance program.
« 339,642 National
Guard, Reserve and ROTC personnel, up 85 percent from 2001, briefed in
communities throughout the United States.
COST: $71,420,000
Paid for largely
through donations to the American Red Cross from the American people.
How does the American Red Cross work with members of the Armed Forces and
their families?
Our military
connection: the Red Cross reaches all members of the Armed Forces. The face
of the military is changing, and we are adapting to those changes. We are
there for all members serving our country, including our colleagues in the
National Guard and Reserves who have families in need of our support. (Many
Americans protecting our country are our co-workers, our doctors and our
neighbors.)
Around the clock and
around the globe, during times of personal crisis, the American Red Cross
keeps the American people in touch with their family members serving in the
United States military.
· The American Red
Cross provides emergency communication services quickly through a network
which links members of the military any place in the world (including ships
at sea, embassies and to isolated military units) with their loved ones.
· For American service
members, the Red Cross is a lifeline, assisting more than 1,100 military
families daily with urgent messages regarding a serious illness, death of a
loved one, or the birth of a child.
· If a family needs to
reach a military member in an emergency, the Red Cross is there to support
them in 961 chapters, at 108 offices on military installations worldwide
and in two state-of-the-art communication centers.
Red Cross staff deploy
overseas with members of the military, living and working by their side to
link them with their families and provide a touch of home.
· Living and working
among military members, including newly deployed military members, Red
Cross workers visit hospitals and remote locations delivering messages of
hope from home and distributing gifts from grateful Americans to lift the
spirits of military members in far away lands.
· Armed Forces
Emergency Services has a cadre of trained workers to support assignments in
times of conflict or for military training exercises. We also rely on
dedicated, trained AFES employees and volunteers in chapters across the
country to respond to the need for additional staff in the event of a
large-scale military emergency.
Where the military
goes, we go! The military is being deployed and so is the Red Cross. It is
a difficult and dangerous time for our Armed Forces members. The Red Cross
will quickly and effectively respond to the needs of military members and
their families when crises occur at home just as we have done for the last
125 years.
Tensions with Iraq. The
American Red Cross is deploying staff alongside our military members as we
have done in times past (the Persian Gulf War in 1990, the crisis in Kosovo
in 1999 and the conflict in Afghanistan that began in 2001). Currently
there are 15 Red Cross workers on the ground in Kuwait and 13 in the
pipeline, as well as two on the ground in Saudi and three in the pipeline.
Red Cross workers are also serving in Kosovo (4), Afghanistan (4), Diego
Garcia (1), Turkey (1) and Bahrain (1).
The Red Cross is always
prepared to respond to military actions with a mobile force of trained
staff to meet the requirements of deployed units at overseas locations. Red
Cross efforts can be described in a three-pronged effort:
• Mobilization
and deployment of Red Cross workers
• Red Cross
outreach to members of the National Guard/Reserves and their families
• Linking
military personnel to their families back home
Related Armed Forces
Emergency Services reading:
Counseling
Emergency Financial Services
Emergency Communications Services
Veterans Services
Reserve, National Guard and Other Community-Based Military Personnel
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