Red Cross month highlights assistance to services

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Ty-Rico Lea
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  When service members or families need assistance to cope with emergencies while in Alaska, the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Red Cross is available.

Family members can use the Red Cross emergency communication system to notify service members of an emergency or other important event. Red Cross messages are delivered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to service members at duty station or deployed location.

Armed Forces Office Manager Diane Fearon has dedicated four years of Red Cross service to JBER and has also volunteered 30 years of Red Cross service - the majority of her career.

"I've been doing this job for four years now - since 2007," said Fearon.
Fearon's primary duty as the JBER Red Cross Armed Forces Office manager is to ensure received calls concerning any service member and or family's financial and medical issues are resolved by way of messages she relays to any designated medical department.

"As a manager, my primary function has been to oversee the emergency message function that we provide for the military," Fearon said. "When there's a family emergency, Red Cross will verify the situation."

During the verification, if there is a death or medical mishap, Red Cross verifies it through a hospital or funeral home. If there is a medical emergency, Red Cross will contact the doctor.

"Verification involves five different pieces of information that we get from medical personnel," said Fearon, "if we're dealing with a medical mishap that results in death, we get it from a funeral home along with the date and time of death. The medical emergency is generally the more complicated piece and that involves getting a diagnosis, a prognosis, a current condition, a life expectancy, if that's an issue, and whether the doctor recommends the service member's or spouse's presence. So it really is depending upon what that situation is, to how complex this process can be."

The Casualty Travel Assistance Program provides travel assistance for two immediate family members to attend a memorial or funeral service or travel to the bedside of a service member wounded in combat zone. Through the CTAP, members receive round-trip airfare, food and incidentals, and lodging costs.

The CTAP is provided to spouses and dependents by the Red Cross association to help family members in their greatest time of need or vice versa. They may travel to the service member's or dependent's location.

"Over at the People Center I wasn't as connected with the hospital itself," Fearon said, "but now that I have my own office in the hospital, it makes it incredibly convenient for me to the clinics people may want to be networked with."

Fearon said her job has changed, since all of the emergency messages are centralized and started by the case service center staff.

"There's one toll-free number, so since late June we've been briefing people that there's been this change and that if you need a message started call (877) 272-7337," Fearon said.

"It's really knowing your community and knowing the resources that are out there and knowing what you have access to and who can you call," Fearon said.