Support for Military and Their Families

Today's American Red Cross is keeping pace with the changing military. Using the latest in computer and telecommunications technology, the Red Cross sends communications on behalf of family members who are facing emergencies or other important events to members of the U.S. Armed Forces serving all over the world. These communications are delivered around-the-clock, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

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

Red Cross workers in hundreds of chapters and on military installations brief departing service members and their families regarding available support services and explain how the Red Cross may assist them during the deployment.

Both active duty and community-based military can count on the Red Cross to provide emergency communications that link them with their families back home, access to financial assistance, counseling and assistance to veterans. Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces personnel work in 756 chapters in the United States, on 58 military installations around the world and with our troops in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Armed Forces Emergency Communications

When a military family experiences a crisis, the American Red Cross is there to help. The Red Cross relays urgent messages containing accurate, factual, complete and verified descriptions of the emergency to service members anywhere in the world, including ships at sea, embassies, and remote, isolated locations. Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the Red Cross links members of the U.S. Armed Forces with their families during emergencies. Also, when a service member's child is born, the Red Cross may be asked by the birth mother to deliver an announcement to the new father.

Through a worldwide network, Red Cross caseworkers:

• Verify the circumstances of a death, critical illness or injury, or other emergency affecting a service member's immediate family
• Send an emergency communication message to the service member's location
• Ensure delivery of the message
• Follow up with the family back home

Service members and military commanders rely on Red Cross emergency communications to help make leave decisions or to help service members cope with the emergency in other ways.

How to contact the The Tri-County Red Cross for assistance

You can always call the Tri-County Chapter at 908-756-6414 for assistance, or use the informaton below:

Active-duty service members stationed in the United States and family members residing with them: Call 877-272-7337 (toll-free).

Family members who do not reside in the service members' household, members of the National Guard and Reserves, retirees and civilians: Call your local Red Cross chapter, which is listed in local telephone books and at www.redcross.org/where/where.html.

Active-duty service members and DoD civilians stationed overseas and family members residing with them: Call base or installation operators or the Red Cross office at the overseas location.

It is helpful to have the following information ready to give to the caseworker:

Service member's

• Full name
• Rank/rating
• Branch of service (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard)
• Social Security Number or Date of Birth
• Military address
• Information about the deployed unit and home base unit (for deployed service members only)