I need help from a military type

[Joesephus]

Not only am I not a military man (love military history and the military channel but...) I'm not American. I've got this story that running circles in my head and I need to be able to ask some questions about how the military handles notificatin of seriouis wounds and re-hab.

All I know is what I've seen in movies about a group of men and the Chaplain making a visit. Is is still done that way? I also would like to know about email and phone calls to troops in harms way in Iraq. How hard would it be for a Marine Cpl to place a call back home or to get an email from home?

 

[wornoutkeyboard]

I regularly e-mail and send packages to a soldier in Iraq. She e-mails me 1-2 times a week with no problems. But then again I have special powers and connections with people in the CIA, KGB, XYZ. I am a very connected individual.

~WOK

 

[Joesephus]

Thanks, do you know...

if the troops have daily access to email when they're off duty? Also, and this is most important, what is the process in the case of a serious wound? I think the wounded soldier is moved out of country quickly, but how is the family notified and are they taken to the soldier or do they have to wait until he/she is returned to America?

I really appreciate your help, I hate to write a story that has glaring errors in it.

 

[Weird Harold]

All I know is what I've seen in movies about a group of men and the Chaplain making a visit. Is is still done that way? I also would like to know about email and phone calls to troops in harms way in Iraq. How hard would it be for a Marine Cpl to place a call back home or to get an email from home?

A visit from a Field-Grade Officer and a Chaplain is only applicable for a death. Notification of injury was, as of the time I retired in 1989, handled by the Red Cross. But there was no such thing as e-mail or the internet at that time, so the methodology may have changed, although it is still the Red Cross that is the legally mandated organization for notifications of injury short of death and arranging for next-of-kin visits.

The Military does provide transportation for dependents on a space-available basis on military aircraft. Travel on commercial carriers would be arranged either by the next-of-kin or the Red Cross.