Red Cross Helps Military Members receive information

TOPEKA, KS, UNITED STATES

05.18.2011

Story by Sgt. Jessica Barnett 

Kansas Adjutant General's Department

TOPEKA, Kan., - This article explains the benefits of Red Cross emergency messages and how it helps military personnel through trying times.

Although today’s technology allows for deployed service members to keep in touch with their loved ones back home better than ever before, American Red Cross messages are still a vital part of emergency communication.

When a military family experiences a crisis, the American Red Cross is there to help, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The Red Cross can quickly send an official emergency message to deployed service members on behalf of their family. Therefore, service men and women are able to focus on their mission and have peace of mind knowing when they are deployed, possibly leaving cell phones and email capabilities behind, they are still connected to loved ones back home.

While providing service to 1.4 million active duty military personnel and their families, the Red Cross also reaches out to more than 1.2 million members of the National Guard and Reserves and their families who live in nearly every community in America.

When a military family experiences a death or serious illness of an immediate family member, the birth of a service member's child or grandchild or when a family faces other emergencies, they can contact the Red Cross to send an official verified message to the service member and their command.

“The Kansas Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross takes great pride in the delivery of this part of our mission, and our responsibility to the men and women of our armed forces very seriously,” said Gregory Simms, chief executive officer, Kansas Capital Area Chapter of American Red Cross. “Locally, we provided emergency communications assistance last year [July 2009 through June 2010] to 342 families and aid to 306 families so far this year."

“We extend to all service men and women, and their families, our sincere thanks for their service to our country, and want them to know that should the need ever arise, they can count on us to be there to support them.”

if you are an Active duty service member stationed in the United States, or a family member residing with them, contact the Red Cross for assistance, please call [phone] (toll-free)
Contact your local Red Cross chapter, which is listed in local telephone directory and at your local Red Cross, if you are:

• Family members of active duty service members who do not reside in the service member’s household
• Family members of Department of Defense Civilians assigned overseas
• Recruiters, Military Entrance Processing Command personnel
• Veterans and
• Civilians

When calling the Red Cross, please provide as much of the following information about the service member as is known:

• Full name
• Rank/rating
• Branch of service (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard)
• Social Security Account number or date of birth
• Military address
• Information about the deployed unit and home base unit such as region/location (for deployed service members only)

However, Red Cross message alone does not grant a service member the ability to come home on emergency leave. Instead, it helps the command understand the situation at hand more clearly through verified information.

Emergency leave is a commander’s program, meaning the unit commander is the level of authority that grants leave. The program varies from branch to branch, and individual cases vary from unit to unit. Granting leave requests varies from soldier to soldier based on that soldier’s job or the current operations and missions.
According to Army Regulation 600-8-10, soldiers may be authorized emergency leave for up to 30 days for emergency situations within the immediate family. For a person in “loco parentis” (acting in the place of a parent), the soldier must sign a statement verifying this status (which should be established during pre-deployment SRPs).

The immediate family includes the following family members of either the soldier or the soldier’s spouse:

(1) Parents, including stepparents
(2) Spouse
(3) Children, including stepchildren
(4) Sisters, including stepsisters
(5) Brothers, including stepbrothers
(6) Only living blood relative
(7) A person in loco parentis. A person in loco parentis is one who stood in place of a parent to the soldier or the soldier’s spouse for 24 hours a day, for at least a five year period before the soldier or the soldier’s spouse became 21 years of age. The person must have provided a home, food, clothing, medical care and other necessities, as well as furnished moral and disciplinary guidance and affection. A grandparent or other person normally is not considered to have stood in place of a person when the parent also lived at the same residence. A person is not considered in loco parentis for performing baby-sitting or providing day care services.

Within the regulation authorization of emergency leave can be granted when:

(1) The soldier’s presence will contribute to the welfare of a terminally ill member of the immediate family when the expected date of death is within the month.
(2) Because of the death of an immediate family member.
(3) For a serious situation involving accident, illness, or major surgery that cannot be postponed due to the urgency of the medical condition. The situation must result in a serious family problem. The family problem must impose important responsibilities on the soldier that must be met immediately and cannot be accomplished from his duty station or by any other individuals or by other means.
(4) Because the soldier is personally affected by a disaster (for example, hurricane, tornado, or flood) SUCH THAT severe or unusual hardship would be encountered if the Soldier failed to return home.

Guidelines for other types of situations where a soldier may request emergency leave for situations within the immediate family, but where ordinary leave should be considered, are as follows:

(1) Pregnancy of spouse and childbirth. Request should be approved if a severe life threatening situation is documented.
(2) Marital problems that need resolving, threatened divorce, or other personal problems. Request should be approved if a severe life threatening situation is documented.
(3) To attend court hearings to resolve financial problems. (Money spent on emergency leave may aggravate problem.)
(4) To assist in harvesting crops or participating in managing business firms.
(5) Psychoneurosis based on family separation. Exceptions may be made when the attending physician believes that a severe psychotic episode is indicated and the member’s return might prevent institutionalization.
(6) To settle estate of a deceased relative.
(7) Situations involving a grandparent (not in loco parentis) aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, or nephew (when not the only living blood relative) or for a friend, fiancée, or fiancé.

Even if the service member receives an e-mail or phone call from home, Red Cross-verified information assists commanding officers with making a decision regarding emergency leave. Without this official verification, the service member may not be able to come home during a family crisis.

Communications with families have greatly improved compared to prior deployments. The need for emergency leave is inevitable based on soldier’s lives and family dynamics as they deploy. The availability and methods to communicate be it over the internet or through Morale, Welfare and Recreations facilities have changed so much that there is no longer degradation to the calls home. This dovetails well with soldiers who either know something has happened or will happen which has been the case in two of the three emergency leave soldiers of the 1161 Forward Support Company, shared Capt. Doug Iverson, commander of 1161, and Hutchinson, Kan., native.

“Based on qualifying Red Cross messages this Command has allowed Unit Commanders the flexibility to support the soldiers needs [Chaplain, family support organizations] in a time of stress and angst,” said Iverson. “It is unfortunate that we cannot be there immediately but this command has placed emphasis to get us home on the next available flight, generally the next day or even that evening. In the end the decision making process is easy as we have policies in place that allow us to be clear on qualifying events allowing soldier to return home.”

• Date Taken: 05.18.2011
• Date Posted: 06.03.2011 10:55
• Story ID: 71528
• Location: TOPEKA, KS, US