If your family has an emergency at home and you must contact your soldier, be sure to contact the Red Cross. If the emergency requires that your soldier come home, Red Cross-verified information helps commanding officers makes decisions about emergency leave and it is up to the military whether the service member returns home.
Without Red Cross verification, your soldier may not be able to come home during a family emergency.
The Red Cross emergency communication services keep military service members in touch with their families following the death or serious illness of an immediate family member, birth of a service member’s child or grandchild, or when a family has other emergencies.
Red Cross can help twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. They will relay urgent messages and verified descriptions of the emergency to service members stationed anywhere in the world including ships at sea and remote locations.
How to Contact the Red Cross for Assistance
Call (877) 272-7337 (toll-free) if you are an Active duty service member stationed in the United States, or a family member residing with them.
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 members’ household,
- Family members of Department of Defense Civilians assigned overseas
- members of the National Guard and Reserves,
- recruiters, MEPS military personnel
- veterans and
- civilians.
Call overseas base or installation operators or the Red Cross office at your location if you are:
- Active-duty service members and family members residing with them or
- Department of Defense civilians stationed overseas and family members residing with them.
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 (for deployed service members only)
Click here to visit the Red Cross website for further information.
Wendy Harman says
This is Wendy Harman from the American Red Cross. Thanks for sharing this information about our Service to Armed Forces.
Peter Macias says
If you are a military family and are struggling with your loved one’s deployment; please contact the Red Cross office in your local area. Or call us toll free at (877) 272-7337. We are there 24/7 for you.
larry goppert (father) says
THANK YOU WERE ON PHONE NOW TO GET HER HOME THKS. CARLYS DAD. GOD BLESS YOU ALL & THANK YOU TO ALL.
LARRY
Elizabeth says
This is a great service. I called less than a week after my brother’s deployment because our grandfather suddenly passed away. Within 2 hours, I had a call from my brother thanking me for getting the information to him!
SGT Spriggs says
I am curious if there is a time requirment to have a redcross message generated. In a circumstance where a immediate family member dies but the funeral is pushed to the side for a few months to allow the entire family to come to funeral, is there a time line that must be fallowed that will still allow the redcross to call and verify death and then call the soldiers unit so they will approve leave. Most units will not warrant leave unless a redcross message is received. thank you