An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Yellow Ribbon helps bring families ‘home’

  • Published
  • By Maj. Dave Belton
  • Air Combat Command Public Affairs
ORLANDO, Fla. --  Resiliency and family were the themes at the Yellow Ribbon event during the last weekend of April at the Peabody Hotel here.

Hosted by Air Force Reserve Command's Yellow Ribbon Program, more than 300 Citizen Airmen and six Citizen Marines attended the three-day event.

"It's all about families," said guest speaker Brig. Gen. Norman Ham, who commands the 440th Airlift Wing, Pope Field, N.C. "It's about making a difference in people's lives."

Chaplain (Capt.) William Brown of MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., agreed.

"Why go to war and do all the hard things we do, only to lose the thing that's most important to us?"

Yellow Ribbon program teaches pre- and post-deployment Citizen Airmen and their families the skills they need to, "not lose the war at home."

The Department of Defense established Yellow Ribbon in 2008 to improve wellness and resiliency in DOD's reserve component members while informing spouses of the resources available to them.

"The feedback is great, especially from the spouses," said Tech. Sgt. Jamie Pander, a Yellow Ribbon staffer from Tinker AFB, Okla. "They're always thanking me for telling them about things they thought they knew...but didn't. Sometimes they'll call months afterwards, and say, 'Hey! Remember me?' Then we'll talk for an hour about questions they have."

Representatives from Tricare, Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve, Military OneSource, finance, education, legal, the Veterans Administration, and a cadre of chaplains were there to answer questions.

"I had a member who was battling a dental bill for almost a year while he was deployed," said Chaplain (Maj.) David Dersch from Maxwell AFB, Ala. "In a matter of moments, I had him talking to the right person."

"There are so many resources...so many nuggets," said Master Sgt. Leah Chavez from Randolph AFB, Texas.

In a happy twist of fate, she met her husband, Staff Sgt. Christian Chavez, while deployed at Balad, Iraq. They married seven months later, two weeks before he deployed yet again.

Preparing to go on her third tour, she said, "You can't do this alone...yet you are alone. Yellow Ribbon really helps."

One of the main goals of Yellow Ribbon is to get couples talking to each other after a deployment.

"The gift of restarting," said keynote speaker Kaarin Salisbury, "of remembering why you chose him or her" are some of the positive aspects of the "forced changes" of deployments.

"Many times, change is good," said Chaplain Dersch, referring to the family separations that often make people refocus on family, re-learn gratitude and become stronger.

According to Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Ralph Devaul, couples reunite with a "new normal."

"You're never the same person as you left," said the Yellow Ribbon adviser from Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command at Robins AFB, Ga. "You can either embrace it...or run from it."

Embracing change is what resiliency is all about, he said. He calls it "a core value."

Citing two recent studies, he said that 2 to 3 percent of returning service members have post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.

"Resiliency is the norm," the chaplain said." Military members are very resilient."

Still, strengthening the "culture of resiliency" is a major goal of today's Air Force, and the Yellow Ribbon program is a force multiplier in that effort.

The program has served more than 17,000 Citizen Airmen and their families over the past three years.

"It's a resiliency program focused on wellness," Chaplain Devaul said. "Just imagine the spill-over effect...from every person we help, and every wingman he touches."

"It's phenomenal what we've done," said Ham. "Family readiness is better than it's ever been. We've learned so much over the last 10 years - about how to take care of our people."

At Pope Field, the general takes the extra step in assigning a person to the family of everyone who is deployed.

"You have to make that special effort," he said.

"There is so much encouragement," said a spouse during one of the many breakout sessions. "It really helps."

Another spouse said, "This is the first time I've ever felt valued by the military."

A teary-eyed newlywed wife of soon-to-be-deployed Airman added, "I'm better now that I know what to expect."

Some Citizen Airmen have been deployed six or seven times. Senior Master Sgt. Courtney Powell from Tinker AFB has deployed 22 times, yet he and his wife, Keri, still learned a lot at the event.

"Half the team is gone," she said of his many absences. "People keep asking me, 'How do you do it?' I just do it! If you sit around and think about it, it only makes things worse."

Another Yellow Ribbon staffer, Master Sgt. Harold Starkey from Barksdale AFB, La., said: "We bring them all the way home."

A veteran of the Vietnam era, he remembers the harsh treatment many returning heroes received. "This is a whole different kind of vet," he said.

"This one's been a marathon," added Ham, speaking about the last 10 years of conflict. "Yet the job is easy as long as you know you're family is safe and sound."