COUNTYWIDE : Red Cross Volunteer to Assist in Gulf

Carol Holmes, an American Red Cross volunteer with the Ventura County chapter, will travel to Saudi Arabia to help send emergency messages to and from the gulf for service members and their families.

The 56-year-old wife and mother of four will be the first volunteer from the Ventura County chapter to be sent to Saudi Arabia. She will work as an assistant station manager for the American Red Cross, her first paid position with the organization.

Holmes will join 51 other Red Cross staff members sending emergency messages from service members to their families in the United States and relaying emergency messages from families to military installations in the Persian Gulf. These messages include notification of deaths, births and illnesses.

Holmes, who has traveled in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, said she was excited at the prospect of returning to the Middle East. She expects to spend at least six months there.

She will leave Jan. 3 for training at Fort Sam Houston, Tex., and another military base before traveling to the gulf at the end of January.

Holmes, an Agoura resident, has worked 17 years in various Red Cross chapters across the United States. She helped the people of St. Croix recover from Hurricane Hugo and did relief work for the Red Cross during the Bay Area earthquake of 1989.

The Ventura chapter of the Red Cross has 1,300 volunteers.

An estimated 2,000 members of the armed services have been deployed to the Middle East from Ventura County.