By David Strom
 

When members of our armed services are on active duty, they are by definition almost always away from home. What happens when there is an emergency, either with them or their family members? That is where the American Red Cross comes into play with the Emergency communications program, under the umbrella of the Hero Care Network. The person responsible for providing management oversight of this service, in partnership with two casework volunteer leads, in the Missouri Arkansas region is Jason Ramlow, who is a Service to the Armed Forces and International Services Regional Program Manager. He has been working for ARC for close to 23 years. “The program is for family emergency communications, such as a serious illness or family death or birth.”

In addition to family members of service members, anyone on active duty in any of the service branches, including being activated for National Guard or Reserve duty can make use of the network. This also includes civilian Department of Defense employees who are working outside the continental US, along with those serving in the Merchant Marine and cadets as well. Messages are sent to or from the service member through a variety of communications tools. Family members can access the network either on the web or via a downloaded mobile app (which were added in the past several years) or just a phone call, with operations standing by 24/7. Service members can make use of dedicated military communications networks wherever they are stationed, including on ships at sea or at military bases around the world.

What is interesting about the program is that it is unique in Red Cross offerings, when you consider that other national Red Cross or Red Crescent societies don’t have any parallel program. The network began operations through a Congressional charter. “The Red Cross has long been a trusted and neutral party which verifies family emergencies and passes the information to the appropriate military commander so they can inform service members and make a better-informed decision whether the mission will permit granting of leave to the service member if presence is needed,” said Ramlow. ARC provides the necessary verification step that the communication is between family members, and that the actual emergency condition is accurate. Once this is done, ARC can provide financial assistance on behalf of the military aid society if required too. “With Red Cross, the military has a trusted and neutral intermediary,” he said. “We just get the facts, which means sometimes calling back a hospital or some other facility to verify the status of the request when someone calls in.” Generally, emergency communications services are completed within 1-2 days, depending on where in the world the service member is stationed and if they are at sea or in flight at the time of the request.

Ramlow is a paid staff member of ARC, but he helps to supervise a team of 40 volunteers to provide casework services such as family follow up after emergency communications has been passed to the command. He has served ARC at a variety of overseas offices at various military bases in Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iraq during his long tenure. Prior to joining the Red Cross, he served in the Air Force for five years in the 1990s. “That service helped me to understand from the family member’s point of view how to share this news with service members, and also recognize the importance of having this communications channel.”

With his long tenure at ARC, he has seen many interesting situations cross his desk. One message was delivered when he was in Iraq when family of a service member wanted to inform another service member of a third’s death. “They requested that the service member escort remains of the deceased service member back to the US. And we have had times when a family member was concerned after speaking to their service member that they might harm themselves, and we were able to take suicide preventative action. We were able to ask their unit to do a welfare check and so Red Cross could reply back to their family.”