An official website of the United States government
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 Lite accelerates deployment preparation

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Scott P. Farley
  • 310th Space Wing Public Affairs
BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. --  The 310th Space Wing Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program hosted a first of its kind Yellow Ribbon Lite event at Buckley Air Force Base, Colo., on Dec. 29.
The event, a spinoff of the weekend-long Yellow Ribbon event, addressed a last-minute need to prepare members of the 710th Security Forces Squadron for deployment in January.
While the event was more short and sweet than the typical Yellow Ribbon events, it did still meets its objective to help prepare Airmen and their families for a deployment.

"The idea is to target members who do not attend a traditional Yellow Ribbon event and provide them with information they would otherwise miss," said Tech. Sgt. Kasey Grindrod, the 310th Space Wing Yellow Ribbon coordinator.

In five hours, the 10 Airmen were talked to by a myriad of information sources, beginning with the 310th Space Wing Vice Commander Col. Mark Hustedt and Command Chief Master Sgt. Rocky Hart.

The two spoke about the importance of events of this type and being prepared for deployment for not only their own sake, but for that of their family.
Chief Hart, who has deployed for the Air Force and the U.S. Army, said when he deployed there was a different emphasis than there is now.

"I was thinking about going down range and doing what I needed to do," said Chief Hart. "I didn't care about family readiness. The folder went in my backpack, and I threw it away when I was in the AOR, because I was thinking about that, not back here."

The security forces members were then briefed by finance, medical, JAG, and education offices. After a working lunch with Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Robert Leivers, the group was provided information from TRICARE, Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve, the Schriever Air Force Base Airman Family Readiness Center, and a Military Family Life Consultant.
"The briefers were phenomenal. You could tell they were very passionate about what they were doing," said 310th Space Wing Command Chief Master Sgt. Rocky Hart, who lauded the efforts of Seregeant Grindrod and the Yellow Ribbon program and how much they have done to bring about change in the deployment cycle. "We have a long ways to go in caring for our Airmen, but I think we have come a long ways."

Sergeant Grindrod said that while people are not in the habit of finding a Yellow Ribbon event before and after deployment that it is becoming part of the deployment cycle.
"Up until the Yellow Ribbon program, we have depended on our supervisors prior to deployment. Our Airmen were prepared to deploy, but they didn't always prepare their family members," said Sergeant Grindrod. "To date, the Yellow Ribbon program has only had a 20 percent participation rate. Because of that, members haven't been getting the information they or their families need. This has caused a lot of problems in the past once Airmen are down range. Our goal is to totally prepare our Airmen and their families for deployments, so we no longer hear an Airman say, 'I wish I would have known that.'"