Pop quiz, military edition: your spouse is deployed to a remote area with few communication options when your father-in-law has a heart attack. What do you do next? As you head to the hospital, your mind races with questions, including who will inform your spouse thousands of miles away.
As the saying goes, there’s an app for that. Helping military families communicate with their loved ones during verified emergencies is just part of what the American Red Cross does through its Hero Care app — part of its larger Hero Care Network.
“When a military family contacts us, Red Cross workers are able to quickly verify the circumstances of a family emergency and provide a confidential report to a service member’s commanding officer,” said Cari Dighton, communications manager of International Services & Service to the Armed Forces at the American Red Cross.
Such a report ensures that troops around the world are still able to quickly hear important news from home.
Here’s how getting crucial information to forward deployed service members works through the Hero Care Network: the event — such as a family death, medical emergency, or birth of a child — happens. Then, the family member either calls the Hero Care Center (they have overseas options, too) or submits the communication via the app or online with detailed information. From there, American Red Cross workers get in touch with the right people who can quickly locate the service member and deliver the information.
It’s something the unique nonprofit — the only congressionally-chartered charity providing emergency communications between active-duty military personnel and their families during personal emergencies — does more than 60,000 times a year. That’s around 173 requests a day.
“The Red Cross has a unique responsibility to carry out this work,” Dighton said. “Unlike other congressionally chartered organizations, the Red Cross maintains a special relationship with the federal government. We have the legal status of ‘a federal instrumentality,’ due to our charter requirements to carry out responsibilities delegated to us by the federal government.”
Thankfully, emergency communications are amongst those responsibilities.
If you have a non-emergent, yet still urgent news or queries for your service member that cannot be delivered through normal channels like email, contact their unit or Soldier and Family Readiness Group (SFRG). But for true emergencies in which the military member should be present or made aware ASAP, the Hero Care Network is your best bet. While the Red Cross doesn’t authorize emergency leave — that’s the commander’s job — it can coordinate with the various military aid societies to get the military member home if necessary.
Dighton said the Red Cross has been “working closely with the U.S. military following the recent escalation of hostilities in the Middle East,” including “providing critical assistance to military families arriving in Europe from” that region. Its Hero Care Network offerings still apply for all.
“From the Spanish-American War to the recent conflicts in the Middle East, the Red Cross has served alongside America’s military personnel and cared for veterans, caregivers and families back home,” she said. “When days, hours and minutes matter, the Red Cross is able to help make a trusted connection.”
Access services through the Hero Care Network, download the Hero Care app by texting GETHEROCARE to 90999, or call a Hero Care specialist at 877-272-7337.
