Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program takes hold in Missouri

Mo. program helps guardsmen in return to U.S.

By Kavita Kumar - St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP
Posted : Saturday Jul 25, 2009 15:53:15 EDT

ST. LOUIS — When Sgt. Nicholas Moore returned from his first deployment with the Missouri National Guard, he was too exhausted to absorb all the details about the military benefits and support services for which he was eligible.

It was 2004 and he had just returned from Iraq.

“We were so fatigued from just being back,” said Moore, 28. Then after the quick briefing at Fort Leonard Wood, “It was like, ‘OK, off you go!’ ”

But it has been a much different experience since he returned from his second deployment, this time as part of the multinational peacekeeping force in Kosovo. Since March, he has spent two weekends in the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program that the Pentagon started last year for guardsmen.

Along with about 350 other Missouri National Guardsmen and their families, Moore spent a weekend at the Renaissance Grand Hotel downtown. They were given spending money to eat around town and were handed certificates, pins and other mementos at a “freedom salute” ceremony.

But the heart of the program is three days of briefings on everything from military benefits such as health insurance and educational assistance to workshops on suicide prevention and reintegrating into civilian life.
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Mo. program helps guardsmen in return to U.S.