Sill, Oklahoma, and Falls Church, Virginia, the Red Cross provides a vital link between the American people and their families serving in the U.S. military. Tragedy can strike a family any time, day or night, and separation due to military service often makes it difficult to reach a man or woman in uniform. The Red Cross communications system is capable of reaching family members residing in the largest and smallest American communities, as well as ships at sea, embassies and isolated units. Red Cross emergency messages provide military personnel and their commanders with fast, reliable information to help them make decisions about emergency leave, deferment, compassionate reassignment and dependency discharge. The Red Cross transmits more than 1.4 million emergency messages each year to members of the U.S. Armed Services and their families.
Financial aid is used for such things as emergency travel, burial assistance, food and shelter.
This role is becoming increasingly important as more community-based military, such as the National Guard, are called to active service. The AFES centers are the cornerstone of the Red Cross's modernization efforts for Armed Forces Emergency Services. This year the Ft. The centers provide accessible, efficient emergency messaging services to members of the military and their families who turn to the Red Cross to get emergency messages to their loved ones thousands of miles away. Sill AFES Center workload has increased rapidly since opening in July 1999.