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Armed Forces Emergency Services

Goodhue County Armed Forces Emergency Services responded 19 times in 2002. We are currently looking for volunteers to be on call to accept and process AFES calls that come into the chapter. A volunteer in this area would be able to do the volunteer work from their home. The volunteer would be in charge of the pager for a given length of time and be able to answer a page 24 hours 7 days a week. Duties would include taking messages from military families and being sure to get all information needed to process the messages through Red Cross and Military channels. Training is provided to the volunteer free of charge by the chapter. This is not a hard job and can be very rewarding. Each military case takes a total of about an hour to process. There are always some exceptions to the rule.

Get to Know Us Before You Need Us

Do you or someone you know have a loved one in the Coast Guard, Reserves, Guard or Armed Forces? If yes, do you know how to contact them in the case of emergency-serious illness, childcare breakdown, birth, death or financial problems? This is a problem for many service families, especially when their loved ones are on the training exercises or deployed. The Armed Forces rely on your American Red Cross to pass verified emergency messages-all without government financial support which is usual for any American Red Cross service. These emergency messages go much faster if the family has all the necessary information to locate their loved ones.

This includes:

• Full Name

• Social Security Number (the military tracks them with this!)
  

• Date of Birth

• Branch of Service

• Military Address (including unit name)

Without the necessary identifying information, emergency messages can take days instead of hours to pass as we attempt to locate loved ones. One recent case took longer just because the spelling of the last name was incorrect (yes, blended families can lead to misspellings) and another one where the birth date was incorrect (they had the right month and date, but the wrong year!) Make sure that more than one member of the family has this vital information handy. And if you'd like to help us to provide emergency services, we are training volunteer caseworkers who take information, verify it and pass it along to the military. This is a great opportunity for a stay at home parent who wants to volunteer but just needs to do it from their home. Give us a call. (651) 388-9166.  Toll free for Minnesota (866) 388-9166