Military Emergency Leave and Red Cross Emergency Messages

1. 1Gather the details. Have the service member's full legal name, rank/rating, branch, Social Security number or date of birth, and unit address ready, plus the nature of the emergency, the family member's name and contact, and where the emergency can be verified (hospital, doctor's office or funeral home). Deployed members also need unit details. The checklist above has the full list.
2. 2Call the Hero Care Center. Call toll free at +1 877-272-7337. The Red Cross says the network is free and available 24/7/365. From overseas, it offers a free web-calling option from any smartphone, computer or tablet.
3. 3Or use the online intake form. The form is for the death and critical illness or injury of a family member. For anything else, such as the birth of a child or a leave extension, the Red Cross asks you to call. Red Cross emergency communication page

If there is an immediate, life-threatening emergency, the Red Cross says to call 911. The Red Cross also offers a free Hero Care app with military resources.

The Red Cross verifies the emergency, notifies the service member and gives the command a confidential report. It does not decide leave. The Red Cross says leave decisions are made by the service member's commander, and the verification is meant to let the commander decide with the best information available.

DoD policy is that when circumstances permit, emergency leave is granted for family emergencies involving your household or immediate family, and that swift and sensitive action is essential. The commander must also be satisfied that an emergency exists and that your presence can resolve or alleviate it. DoWI 1327.06 asks for help in verifying the emergency from the American Red Cross (for a family member not affiliated with DoW) or the Service personnel office nearest the emergency, and says delays in verification must not cause you to arrive too late for the purpose of the leave.

DoWI 1327.06 lists situations where emergency leave may be appropriate: a death in the household or immediate family, your presence benefiting a dying family member, a serious illness that must be met immediately and cannot be handled from your duty station, or a severe and unusual hardship if you do not return home.

Emergency leave is chargeable leave: the days come out of your leave balance. A unit commander may authorize up to 30 days; requests over 30 days go to the Secretary of the Military Department concerned or the Commandant of the USCG.

If your balance runs out, advance leave is the tool for urgent or emergency situations. You must take all accrued leave first, you keep accruing pay, allowances and annual leave while on it, and it must be limited to the minimum needed. It is normally capped at the lesser of 30 days and the leave you will earn in the rest of your active service (or, on an extension, before your separation date), and anything over 30 days needs the Secretary or Commandant. If you separate while in advance status, it becomes excess leave, which is no-pay and may lead to collection of the pay and allowances you received. If you are close to separation, also see the terminal leave calculator and the military pay dates for when pay arrives.

If your spouse or child has died, DoWI 1327.06 para 3.11.j separately allows non-chargeable bereavement leave of up to 14 consecutive days, which can be combined with emergency, annual or advance leave. With 30 or more days of accrued leave, chargeable leave is charged until your balance is fewer than 30 days, when bereavement leave can begin.

There is also a non-chargeable emergency leave of absence under 10 U.S.C. 709: up to 14 days for a qualifying emergency, granted only once in a member's entire career and only to keep the member out of advance or excess leave status. The qualifying emergency must be verified by a source other than the member that the Secretary or Commandant considers objective and reliable, and must involve a medical condition of the immediate family or another hardship the Secretary or Commandant considers appropriate.

DoWI 1327.06 says emergency leave travel at U.S. Government expense, including travel for dependents in emergency situations, is authorized under DoDI 4515.13 and Chapter 4 of the Joint Travel Regulations. Authorized transportation costs are charged to the funds that support the unit's temporary duty travel, and leave will not be denied solely for lack of those funds. Time spent in emergency leave travel authorized at U.S. Government expense or on military aircraft is not charged to your leave account. Emergency leave is also not granted to raise your travel priority or offset personal travel costs.

This page does not summarize the Joint Travel Regulations themselves, so ask your command or travel office whether your trip qualifies. Separately, the Red Cross says military aid society assistance can include funds for emergency travel for eligible members.

The Red Cross lists activated members of the Guard and Reserve of all branches among those eligible for an emergency message. Its list does not mention members in drill status who are not on orders, so ask your unit how to handle an emergency during drill. The emergency leave paragraph of DoWI 1327.06 speaks of Service members in general and does not set a separate Guard or Reserve rule.