Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Julie Avey | 104th Fighter Wing Airmen who recently returned home from serving overseas, receive...... read more read more
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Last weekend in the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program (YRRP) hosted 104th Fighter Wing members and dependents to an information-packed event, ensuring our deployed Airmen were taken care of while being welcomed home.
The Airmen, representing over 20 different career fields, recently returned home from deployments. While deployed, the 104th ‘s Airmen supported operations throughout the U.S. Central Command, U.S. European Command, and U.S. Africa Command.
Many topics were discussed during the post-deployment event, such as Veteran’s benefits, medical benefits, financial planning, and retirement choices. Informational sessions on healthcare, family programs, education, employment, reintegration tools, and stress management and communication skills were offered at the YRRP event.
Mr. Will Freeman was a guest speaker who is a Veteran himself. Freeman challenges others to look at the good through an interactive and humorous approach.
“The good stuff doesn’t usually come in a nice gold box,” said Freeman “It may even come distorted, but it is a blessing inside that box that you can see when looked at with a positive perspective.”
Freeman talked about the “after 21 times makes it a habit” theory. He played a video called “All Good” from John Gretton “Jocko” Willink, a retired United States Navy SEAL, commander of SEAL Team Three, podcaster. Freeman talked about how his life has been “all good” as he rebuilds a new career on a different coast with new adventures after divorce and uses a positive approach to see the good.
“More things have happened to me and changed my mentality when saying it’s all good,” said Freeman. “Opportunities have opened up, and answers have been provided. I am a real-life person with experiences and feelings and want people to know I’m not a lecturer but instead, someone who uses tools to get through my fears.”
He also discussed when some folks received orders they may have been distraught over the new people they were going to be working with away from the folks they usually work with at their units as each new opportunity arose over deployment, the experiences with new people allowed for positive outcomes.
He left off with “How are you raising your next leaders?” and challenged folks to lead with a positive perspective.
Yellow-Ribbons are held at key stages of the deployment cycle: pre-deployment, during deployment, and post-deployment. The during-deployment phase was created for dependents and aids in reinforcing the value of available resources helps identify the needs of the families.
“The goal of the Veteran’s Administration’s Transition Management Team is to ensure the military members and veterans are informed while being taken care of throughout the entire process,” said Leigh Paz, VA Healthcare, Transition Management Team. “We communicate and stay in touch through the entire process, ensuring Veterans aren’t falling through the cracks. We are your team. It is events like this we can ensure you know the benefits such as health care after deployment."
According to the program’s website, the YRRP is a Department of Defense effort to promote the wellbeing of National Guard and Reserve members and their loved ones by connecting them with resources throughout the deployment cycle.
| Date Taken: | 09.13.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 09.15.2019 09:49 |
| Story ID: | 340739 |
| Location: | WESTFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, US |
| Web Views: | 192 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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