How does it work when someone is sent home from al asad for emergency reasons?

Question

August 19th my daughter put in a red cross call for her husband to be sent home from Al Asad as her Dr. suggested it as she has severe epilepsy and it is getting worse. She has up to 100 seizures a day and is unable to care for their 4 month old baby alone. MY son in law called the same evening saying his boss came to where he was on duty and gave him the red cross message and told him to leave work and pack as he MAY be leaving later that morning. but that it could still be denied. My son in law works where there are phones and he also has internet access. Since that call i just spoke of, we have not heard from him. We are very concerned as this is unlike him to not let us know something. He did tell us before we put the call in that between the 20 and the 23rd he may be going for some type of training for 10 days and we most likely would not hear from him. This is the only logical thing that I can think of other than it takes them several days to get home from, Iraq? What is the normal protocol to get these soldiers home on emergency leave? Does it usually take this long? How are they flown home? We have an air force base right here and he is on the airbase in Al Asad. Anyone have any suggestions?

Answer 1

Red Cross messages go through pretty fast, no matter where he is, his chain of command will always have a way of communication.  I have never seen a Red Cross message take more than a day, even overseas you are sent out in less than a day, it might take 2-3 days to get out of Iraq but its normally fast.

Answer 2

if he is already in transit he will not have any way of communicating with you.. and depending on when he lands to refuel or change planes.. even then..  you may not hear from him again until he is back in the States.

or he may not have been allowed to  go on Emergency leave at all.    

Answer 3

You can always contact the base chaplain and ask for his assistance.

Answer 4

flight out of country to neighboring arab country. flight out of there, stop in europe to refuel, arrive on east coast.

sorry, don't want to give out too much specific info. it's not really important but i don't want to chance it.

Answer 5

I worked for the Red Cross on Ramstein AB and I can tell you the the message first has to go through national headquarters in Virginia, the message has to be verified.  After that the unit will receive the message.  The unit will decide if the message will determine if the soldier, sailor, airmen or marine will be released on emergency leave.  In this case, redeployment home.  The message usually takes 24 hours to arrive at the unit, then they have to talk to the service member and if it is decided that he/she is going home it will take time to cut the paperwork and out-process.  The military is generally very good about these things and has the service member home within 48 hours of receiving the message, best case scenario.  

Be patient it will take time and many flights to get home from Iraq.  Besides, as a service member myself and someone who was there in Iraq, if someone from the base is killed the phone and internet can be shut down unit the next of kin are notified, this prevents the family from finding out by someone other then the notification team.  

Service members are flown out of Iraq to Kuwait, then to Germany, then to a stateside airport (used to be Dallas) to the nearest airport of the family.  If the airbase you live by has heavy's (C-130/C-5/C-17's) that fly into Ramstein AB, then your son-in-law can fly direct.