Training and Deploying to Serve the Military

Nearly 150 years ago Clara Barton recruited nurses to support the U.S. Army and today the American Red Cross continues to serve the U.S. military, its veterans, and their families through our Service to the Armed Forces program.

One of the ways we support the military is by service members connected to their families during difficult times. Our Emergency Communications Center quickly and efficiently obtains the required information and sends those messages to service members all over the world. As sophisticated as our communications are, in the end, the messages are relayed to trained Red Cross personnel in the field who work with the military to deliver the message.

One of those people is Gaby Skovira, a young Red Crosser who learned in November that she would be deploying to Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan this month as part of our Service to the Armed Forces program. Gaby has written a series of blog posts covering her training, the trip to Afghanistan, and her initial orientation once she got there. It's a great behind the scenes look at one of our five core services.

• Questions - Nov 29th, 2012
• Deployment Prep - Dec 11, 2012
  
• Deployment Prep 2: CRC at Ft. Benning - Dec 27, 2012
  
• Goodbye Ft. benning, Hello Afghanistan! - Jan 1, 2013
  
• Hail and Farewell - Jan 14, 2013

Be sure to keep up with the Red Cross Blog for future updates from Gaby.

Members of departing Team 28 and arriving Team 29