Returned N.J. troops get support from Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program

Returned N.J. troops get support from Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program
by Tomas Dinges/The Star-Ledger
Monday August 17, 2009, 4:46 AM
The last time Major Bill Morris came home from service in 2005, he was free from his military obligations soon after demobilization. The 41-year-old New Jersey Army National Guard officer from Burlington Township was with his wife within the day and on his motorbike nearly as quick.

There was advice and counseling provided at Fort Dix by family support groups and the Veterans Administration, but nothing like the $3 million effort being done by the New Jersey Army National Guard to ease the transition of the 2,800 troops that returned home in June. Today thousands of soldiers and family members gathered in their units at the Atlantic City Convention Center as part of the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program, a national initiative that consists of a series of mandatory meetings for Army National Guard and Reserve troops and families.


Educators, employers and representatives from Veterans Affairs were on hand to help the soldiers and family members deal with issues ranging from basic benefits, to soldiers rights if their jobs are terminated because of their military service, to how to deal with social issues that can crop up within families.

While the National Guard has come to perform just like full-time Army in war, they lacked the support system the comes with being in the Army, said Chief Frank Albanese, the State Family Program Director for the New Jersey Army National Guard.

Active-duty soldiers return to their home base and often have access to support services there and are generally younger. By contrast, National Guard soldiers are often older, and are re-inserted directly into families, jobs, and civilian communities that they left just a year previous, Albanese said.
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Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program