As a result Minnesota has formed a comprehensive new program aimed at assisting veterans long after they come home. Beyond the Yellow Ribbon guides veterans through everything from making sure one’s drivers license hasn’t expired, to getting medical check-ups, to resolving conflicts with a spouse. The key here is that it’s all under one program, making it (in theory) easy to take advantage of all the program has to offer.
Here’s a telling example from the Grand Forks Herald about what kinds of difficulties can arise from a homecoming:
Cue Beyond the Yellow Ribbon. Following this link one can listen to well-thought-out podcast on behavioral health dealing with family issues. Will one podcast resolve the issue? Perhaps not, but it can help the parties begin to think about ways to resolve the conflict.
The caller is a woman from Crookston, wife of a soldier who came home last summer after an extended tour.
“We’ve been walking on egg shells, and we can’t take it anymore,” she tells Morris, her frustration billowing like black smoke from a sabotaged Iraqi oil well.
“The kids come to me for everything, like they’ve been doing the past two years,” she said, as Morris recalled the conversation. “He doesn’t want to spend time with our friends; he thinks their interests are trivial and they don’t know anything about what his life has been like.
“He says, ‘I just want to be with my war buddies.’ "
How can we help? Morris asked her.
“Send him back to Iraq.”
The Herald also points to the very real notion that it’s not always the case that a program like Beyond the Yellow Ribbon will be unconditionally embraced. As one National Guard Chaplin told the paper:
In contrast:
According to local news reports so far these two contrasting groups are now beginning meet halfway with the help of the National Guard program. Now lawmakers are seeking to make Beyond the Yellow ribbon a model for other states to follow.
Also, family members “had been more exposed to media and had heard stories from other families about soldiers coming back with problems,” Morris said. “They had a better idea of what might be needed.”
