Military Services

 With the American Red Cross you are never out of touch … around the clock …around the world.

If you are a family member who needs to communicate an emergency message to a service member, please call 866-971-5300 any time to speak with a military caseworker.

The American Red Cross was founded to aid fallen soldiers on the battlefield. Today this effort continues through Red Cross services for military families. The Red Cross is the official liaison between the military and their families. It is the only agency that can provide communication services for members of the U.S. Armed Forces stationed anywhere in the world and their families at home. Paid and volunteer staff work around-the-clock to take messages from families of service personnel -- messages of serious illness, births and deaths -- and forward this information to the necessary military location. In the past year, we provided services to 253 men and women of the Armed Forces and their families.

  We provide the following services for the Armed Forces:  

• Emergency Communications: Keeping military personnel in touch with their families during family emergencies such as death, serious illness or the birth of a child. American 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 hardship discharge. The American Red Cross transmits more than 1.4 million emergency messages each year to members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families.

When calling us to send an emergency message to a family member, please have the following information ready:    

·        Service Member's Full Name

·        Rank/Rating 

·        Branch of Service 

·        Social Security Number 

·        Military Address Where Deployed 

·        Home Base Unit

• Financial Assistance: We verify the need for financial assistance when an urgent personal or family crisis arises – that is, when you might need financial assistance for emergency travel, burial of a loved one, or urgent health and welfare needs such as food and shelter. Then the Red Cross acts as a disbursing agent for the Military Aid Society Referral Unit (MASRU).

• Outreach: Providing information, referrals and other social services to military families. This role is becoming increasingly important as more community based military, such as National Guard and Reserves are called to active duty.

For Families & Troops:

• Deployment Health & Family Readiness Library: A PDF with useful information.

• National Resource Directory: A website for wounded, ill and injured service members, veterans, their families and those who support them.
• Talk, Listen, Connect: When Families Grieve: An initiative by Sesame Street, this external website gives strategies to talk to children about grief.
• Get to Know Us Before you Need Us: Register to receive an informative presentation about all the services the American Red Cross has to offer to recruits and their families.
• Michigan Joint Family Support Assistance Program: Descriptions and contact information for a variety of programs that provide a continuum of support locally in Michigan .

Support Our Troops:

•   Become a volunteer! Learn more about becoming a caseworker and working with Veteran Affairs by visiting our volunteer opportunities.

• Cell Phones for Soldiers: Bring your old cell phone into the chapter or any other drop off location to recycle it and raise money to buy calling cards for active service members. Learn how to erase any personal data off your phone here.

• Send an e-mail message of support through http://www.defendamerica.mil or http://anyservicemember.navy.mi

• Make a donation!