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Red Cross sends two with ties to area overseas
Feb 04, 2012 (Tulsa World - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Two American Red Cross workers with Oklahoma ties are preparing to head to war zones where U.S. troops are stationed to assist with the organization's emergency communication programs.
Hope Bryant, whose family lives in Stigler, and Jason Rineheart, whose family lives in Fort Gibson, will work as assistant station managers with the Red Cross Service to Armed Forces Reserve Corps, according to a news release from the Red Cross.
They will be providing emergency communications between deployed military personnel and their families back home, as well as hosting morale-boosting events, Bryant said.
Bryant will serve at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. Rineheart will be stationed at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.
Bryant, who graduated from college in 2009, said she applied to work for the program after serving as a Red Cross volunteer in Spokane, Wash., for more than a year.
She sought the position knowing that she would be deployed overseas, but she said it was a way for her to give back to the troops.
"It's like any job," she said. "You have to apply and interview."
Bryant and Rineheart head to Fort Sill on Sunday to begin their training on how to construct and deliver messages to service members and their families.
They will then go to Fort Benning in Georgia before continuing on to Kuwait and Afghanistan.
They will serve overseas for five months and are set to return in August, Bryant said.
The emergency communications can include notification to service members of the death of a relative or the announcement of a birth, she said.
The modern communications network "quickly and reliably verifies family emergencies and relays important and confidential information to military personnel and their commanding officers," according to the news release.
"It's not all bad news," Bryant said. "Sometimes we get to tell them they have a new baby."
She said she is not nervous about the deployment but rather is eager to get there and get to work.
"I'm just excited to get to go over and help the service members," she said.
Jerry Wofford 918-581-8310
jerry.wofford@tulsaworld.com
___ (c)2012 Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.) Visit Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.) at
www.tulsaworld.com Distributed by MCT Information Services
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