By Debra R. Cox, American Red Cross Team 54 Field Member

It is more than challenging to describe the manner in which the desert works its way into one’s soul. It would be oversimplifying to merely attribute it to literal grains of sand billowing anywhere and everywhere. The etching of the metaphorical grains of sand begins with reaching out to assist service members in some of their darkest of moments and it is markedly dark, especially at night here in the desert but the grains of sand far from end there. Sandstorms simply would not allow it.

We are Team 54. The work inexplicably drives all of us, whether we are in the desert regions, or in the mountains and valleys, working over 12 hours a day seven days a week to ensure our service members are benefiting from our services. This includes the delivery of emergency communications and the morale-boosting activities we largely invent to give a feeling of home. Regardless of the driving fatigue, deployed members of the American Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces team are in our respective theaters delivering services to the newly enlisted, to the seasoned veteran leaders and commanders at our installations. The ongoing and heartfully expressed gratitude of our service members fuels us beyond words as the multitude of grains of sand deeply stirs our souls because they can and they must. Our work here insists on this seemingly simple yet simultaneously complex anomaly of meaning.

Sandstorms embed sand, and so do we. Sometimes this simply means giving a smile and a nod at the many places we frequent with our thousands of service members we serve on our respective bases throughout the globe. Sometimes this means practicing a salsa dance step with the service members who gently pull us onto the dirt or the cement dance floor because they watch with their keen and patriotic eyes, and they realize how very hard we are working to support them. Oftentimes it means delivering emergency communications, sometimes in the middle of the night, that connect them to home in a deeply personal way. It always includes faces, hearts and souls that are deeply affected and intricately moved by this work, and while we begin as grains of sand, we do not end there. For some of our deployed team members, it contrastingly means serving in bone-chilling environments in European cities and hamlets. In our case, the desert draws us because this is where our country’s service members are serving, and we are here in the desert in unrelenting heat as sandstorms surround us, but we are here with joyous hearts because we desire to serve them regardless of the austere circumstances. We are Team 54.

-From the Field

Debra Cox’s Service to the Armed Forces Deployment

The Red Cross provides in-person support for troops on all military installations in the U.S. and on more than 35 overseas installations including the Far East, Middle East and Europe. In addition to Debra Cox’s work serving members of the military community in Southern California, she has also deployed to Kuwait as a member of the Service to the Armed Forces team. She is serving alongside fellow Red Crossers dedicated to providing important services to military members during their time away from home. From facilitating Emergency Communication Messages to providing volunteer opportunities to service members, to offering resiliency and self-care opportunities, SAF teams deployed across the world provide members of the armed forces with important services. During her deployment, Debra is also writing about her experience in a series of stories titled From the Field.