Yellow Ribbon offers help to returning Florida National Guards

Yellow Ribbon offers help to returning guardsmen


By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 26, 2011

Updated: 01:53 pm

TAMPA - Florida National Guard Staff Sgt. Roger Roache thought he knew what to expect when he was deployed to Kuwait in January 2010 after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Although Afghanistan was intense, Kuwait turned into a whirlwind of another kind.

"This was the easiest of missions because you know what to expect," said Roache, 32. "Emotionally, it's crazy."

His wife, Laura, learned she was pregnant after a trip they took together on his leave. She mailed him sonogram photos, e-mailed updates after doctors' appointments and leaned on family for support. He got up at 4 a.m. to call her for news.

When he returned to their Palm Bay home in December, she had a lengthy "honey-to-do list" for him. She said she didn't know how she would have gotten through the end of the pregnancy without him there.

Their son, Achilles, was born three weeks ago, and the couple is adjusting to sleep deprivation – they joke Achilles is on "Kuwait time."

Although Roger Roache is unemployed and job-hunting, it's a happy period for them.

The hard part tends to come three to four months after a soldier returns, said Col. Jim Fogle-Miller, state chaplain for the National Guard.

At first, he said, families are in the "honeymoon of getting back." But real life creeps in and stress grows.

Fogle-Miller spoke today about reconnecting with loved ones, part of the Yellow Ribbon Program at the Hyatt Regency Tampa. About 1,000 Florida Army National Guard members and their families got an expenses-paid weekend to learn about resources available to help them adjust to post-deployment life.
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Yellow Ribbon offers help to returning guardsmen