Beyond the Yellow Ribbon
States make more efforts to ensure connections with Guard/Reserve families don’t stop even after deployment ends.
By Sara Horn
When Glenda Robles’ husband Charles returned home from Iraq with his National Guard unit in July of 2009, they got one day of debriefing.
“It was the day after he came home,” says Glenda. “They gave us a binder full of information that we might need. There were representatives there from various organizations that spoke, with tables set up with pamphlets and information. They also spoke about reintegration and some of the things we should expect to happen.”
Since 2001, National Guard and Reserve members like Glenda’s husband have deployed at unprecedented levels, at times outnumbering the active military serving overseas in combat areas. Yet Guard and Reserve members return home and are often expected to shed uniforms along with military mindsets and quickly rejoin civilian life, receiving very little of the same resources their active counterparts do.
After returning home from deployment, soldiers are expected to report to work the next day. They may not receive their official leave time for a few weeks after the deployment is over. National Guard and Reserve members often have up to 90 days after a deployment before they have to report back for a regular drill weekend. That’s three months that if unchecked and untreated, a lot can go wrong.
But in 2004 when a large Minnesota National Guard brigade combat team deployed to Iraq for 22 months, officials began questioning what would happen when those service members came home.
Major General Larry Shellito, Adjutant General for Minnesota, recalled his own experiences of returning home after serving in Vietnam in the 1970s and the difficulties he faced from those who couldn’t relate. “I remember once sitting there with other people in college, told them I’d come back from Vietnam,” he says. “The response I got back was ‘oh, you’re one of those people sucking up my tax dollars.’ I learned very quickly not to talk about it.”
So Shellito talked with Lieutenant Colonel John Morris, chaplain for the Minnesota National Guard, about designing some reintegration programs for when those service members came home from deployment.
“He saw that Minnesota soldiers were beginning to experience the same reintegration challenges he and his generation of Vietnam veterans experienced and so he asked me to design a program that would address those reintegration challenges,” says Morris. “I myself was experiencing those challenges personally and so I had a heightened self interest. I saw what was happening in my family – it was my second deployment – and I was aware of what was happening in families around me.”
That’s when Beyond the Yellow Ribbon was started. Known as Deployment Cycle Support to the Army, the name Beyond the Yellow Ribbon is a reminder to families, community and the nation that the support of military service personnel cannot end once the service member arrives home.
Melanie Nelson, director of marketing and communications for Minnesota’s Beyond the Yellow Ribbon program, said that as the desire to do more for returning Guard and Reserve members spread, many came out in support of the program—including Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
“As we rank all of the things we want to have as priorities in Minnesota, the first one should be taking care of members of the military… they give so much for us, we need to be sure we match that commitment in our words and our deeds,” says Pawlenty.
How BTYR works
As a result of the work from Morris and others, returning Minnesota Guard members are required to attend 30-day, 60-day and 90-day briefings after a deployment and family members are invited to attend at least one of those briefings. And the program isn’t just limited to the North Star state. Each state is mandated by the National Guard to offer a Beyond the Yellow Ribbon.
Tennessee is one of those states working hard at offering reintegration programs for their military members as well as making a point to reach out to service members’ families.
“The family is our first line of defense,” says Mike Goodrich, the transition assistance advisor for the Tennessee National Guard. “They know if their soldier is self-medicating, or tardy at work. We give them a book to help educate them. They’re our first line of defense; they’re the first person to see a change in their loved one.”
Melanie Nelson from the Minnesota BTYR program says it’s neat to see the family briefings because so much effort is made to bring in experts and help for every individual in the family. “There are youth counselors, military family life counselors… we have panels of military moms and military wives and [those families attending] can ask those people who have already been there questions and get tried and true answers.”
The reach of BTYR is purple in its intent – meaning that while the program is sponsored by the National Guard, reservists and active service members of any military branch can attend its events.
Cities, companies and schools get involved
When the National Guard started working on a reintegration program, one not-so-ordinary Minnesota citizen was also doing what she could to support the troops. “A Blue Star mom from the town of Farmington put together an action plan of how her town could support the troops,” says Nelson, and in December of 2008, the governor declared Farmington as the first Yellow Ribbon city.
Since that day, Minnesota’s push to get as many people as possible supporting the troops has grown. There are Yellow Ribbon Cities, Yellow Ribbon Counties, Yellow Ribbon Companies – businesses who ensure local returning citizen soldiers will have jobs to come home to, Yellow Ribbon Schools and even Yellow Ribbon Churches. In order to earn the distinction, a city or a school must hold community events and develop action plans that list in precise detail how that city or business or school plans on showing or offering support to Guard and Reserve members and their families.
According to Nelson, anyone can start a Yellow Ribbon City or Company.
“Three or four years ago, a woman living in Wilmer, a rural Minnesota town close to North Dakota, wanted to start a support group though she had no connection to the military herself,” said Nelson. “She did care packages for service members she found out about, even though there wasn’t a unit from the town deployed. Now she’s going to help make Wilmer a Yellow Ribbon City. With our office we can help her with messaging and logos but the heart has to come from the volunteer and the community.”
On the web:
www.beyondtheyellowribbon.org
Sara Horn is the wife of a Navy reservist, a writer, author and founder of Wives of Faith, a faith-based military wives support organization. Email her at sara@wivesoffaith.org.