However, don't make the mistake of placing this task aside with good intentions of getting to it later. Why? Because if an emergency arises and you need to send a Red Cross message to your spouse, you don't want to waste valuable time hunting for your local Red Cross phone number. Doing so adds additional stress to an already stressful situation.
Acquiring Your Local Red Cross Phone Number
You can locate the Red Cross phone number for the chapter that services your community by visiting the Red Cross Web site and entering your zip code in the search box.
Once you have the contact information, make sure to post the phone number in a handy place at home. For added measure, keep a copy in your wallet and/or program the number into your cell phone.
Hopefully, the deployment will be smooth and crisis free - or as smooth and crisis free as a deployment can be - and you'll never have the need to send a Red Cross message to your spouse.
However, should an emergency arise, you can take comfort in knowing that at any given moment you're prepared to notify your loved one.