Gaining knowledge after deployment: Tennessee Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program welcomes troops home

Photo By Sgt. Matt Young | Service members of 1176th Transportation Company and 105th Personnel Company attend their Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program with their families, to gain valuable knowledge upon returning from a nine-moth deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Photo by U.S. Army Sgt. Matt Young/RELEASED)  

NASHVILLE, TN, UNITED STATES

02.07.2015

Story by Sgt. Matt Young 

118th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, Tennessee Army National Guard

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After a nine-month deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan, both the 1176th Transportation Company and 105th Personnel Company were welcomed home with a Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program (YRRP) event hosted at the downtown Nashville Maxwell House Hotel.

The YRRP is designed to provide local resources to National Guard and Reserve soldiers and their families before, during and after deployments by helping families reconnect with their soldier, connecting them with information and care that can reduce stressors associated with long-term separation, and outline the benefits each soldier earned as a result of their deployment. This is also an opportunity for the Tennessee National Guard to welcome their citizen-soldiers home.

“You can’t hear this information enough throughout your career,” Capt. Daniel Isley, 1176th Transportation Company commander said. “To be able to get this information into my Soldiers' hands through this program is amazing.”

Attendees will receive marriage counseling and assessment information, Veterans Affairs information and enrollment assistance, education and training benefits, domestic violence awareness and prevention, suicide awareness and prevention, as well as vital health information on TBI and PTSD.

The program first began in 2008 and has improved with every homecoming event.

“The level of support has grown exponentially as this program has come along each year,” Isley said.

Chief Warrant Officer Emily Wiest, Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program support officer, feels these events have helped soldiers connect with their local resources and provided opportunities with local employment for returning soldiers through the many vendors attending these events.

Chief Warrant Officer Parry Hazen, Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program manager, has been working with the program for nearly two and a half years and feels the program is very beneficial to the troops and their families, in that it is able to bring resources to light that may have been unknown upon their return from deployment

For more information on the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program and how your unit cam become involved, contact Hazen at 615-313-0686 or [e-mail].

• Date Taken: 02.07.2015
• Date Posted: 02.11.2015 15:32
• Story ID: 154219
• Location: NASHVILLE, TN, US
• Hometown: NASHVILLE, TN, US