By Mary Jo Blackwood, American Red Cross Public Affairs Volunteer
Serving with the United States Armed Forces in war-torn parts of the world is incredibly stressful. The American Red Cross helps make it a little less stressful by having mobile staff there on-site to help with emergency notification and other services.
Mobile staff members who are deployed to troop concentrations around the world are required to obtain a security clearance from the government, meet health standards, and receive ongoing training to maintain their worldwide mobility status. One such staff member, Barbara Shufelt of the Colorado/Wyoming Region, has done just that.
Barbara started her career with the American Red Cross as a volunteer military caseworker in Kaiserslautern, Germany in 1995 and then was hired as a paid staff member in the position of Field Office Assistant. She has been with the Red Cross ever since for 26 years.
After returning stateside for a number of years and after her daughter was grown and married, she was able to leave for an extended period and was deployed to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait from July 2018 to February 2019. It was an experience she will never forget and hopes to repeat in the future.
“I loved going on deployment with the troops! There is something life-altering about working shoulder-to-shoulder with the service members in an overseas environment, it is an amazing experience! You form deep bonds with your SAF team and the service members, and I am still in touch with some of the soldiers and civilians who volunteered their time with me at the Red Cross Resilience Center in Camp Arifjan. I consider them lifelong friends!”
She says the American Red Cross was born on the battlefield with Clara Barton, and she feels honored to be a part of a select group of Red Crossers to be able to serve in this capacity. Her deployment to Kuwait lasted a total of seven months, which included time spent in Germany while preparing for departure to Kuwait, and the return to Germany on the way home to out-process.
While in Kuwait, she felt very fortunate to be able to be housed in her own “pod”, shipping containers converted into small housing units. It was definitely more comfortable than staying in one of the open bays, and she appreciated the military providing the Red Cross with this housing option!
Her main duties in Kuwait involved providing ongoing Emergency Communication Messages for service members who were deployed to the Mideast and Djibouti in Africa. The messages ranged from providing verification on the serious illness or death of a soldier’s immediate family member to a breakdown in childcare, legal issues and unfortunately even suicide prevention activity. She also had the honor of being able to deliver the good news of birth announcements to deployed service members! “Being able to deliver those messages to the military chain of command always meant a lot to me!”