FORT HOOD, Texas, - A group of special support staff joined a Wyoming contingent of personnel recently at Fort Hood, Texas, to welcome Wyoming Army National Guard Soldiers back to the United States.
The “Warm Welcome Team” consisted of 18 volunteers who were tasked with providing a one-on-one conversation with Soldiers returning from the largest single-unit deployment in Wyoming’s history.
The Wyoming Army Guard’s 115th Fires Brigade deployed last spring in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, providing command and control operations as well as convoy escort and security throughout Kuwait and portions of Iraq.
The welcome team was an addition to the traditional support staff utilized during the demobilization process, where service members finalize deployment paperwork and prepare for the transition back to home life.
Approximately 700 Wyoming Soldiers began this process more than a week ago, with the first group of roughly 100 service members returning to Casper, Wyo., on March 27. The remaining groups arrived at Fort Hood in three separate clusters, finalizing the arrival and out-processing schedule through April 1. Every Wyoming Soldier returned back to the state by April 2.
But before making the final trip home, Soldiers conducted several days of out-processing within demobilization stations around Fort Hood. These ranged from shoring up finances to identifying veteran support services and conducting medical screenings.
The Wyoming Military Department often sends a group of employees to help with this process. Representatives from human resources, finance, medical and even equipment retrieval spend time working with Wyoming Soldiers to get them ready for home.
Mixed between each of these stations were the representatives from the Warm Welcome Team.
Some of the team wore t-shirts with Wyoming bucking horse insignia. Others wore belt buckles and cowboy boots. But each member of the team had a warm welcome nametag, a list of Soldiers, business cards and 100-minute phone cards.
The team members approached each Wyoming Soldier one-on-one, welcomed them home, and offered the phone card and business contact information to follow up with upon their return. Part of their interaction also involved a set of questions related to coming home. Basic answers regarding employment and education were part of the process.
Dr. Tamer Mattar with the Yellowstone Behavioral Health Center in northern Wyoming was one member of this team and said the key mission of the program is to provide a link to available services in Wyoming. He said the important part of each interaction is to be able to put a familiar face with a name, offering the availability of support.
Larry Barttelbort, Wyoming Veterans Commission director, said each member of the team is experienced in the reintegration process. He said the team is trying to keep the mental health aspect as low-key as possible.
“It is a bit of a pilot project,” Barttelbort said. “The first iteration of the 960th (Brigade Support Battalion), we got wonderful comments from the Soldiers and from the providers.”
He said Corey Loghry, Yellow Ribbon Program representative and deputy military personnel officer, was the author and architect of the program. Barttelbort took the role as a recruiter to build the team.
“The goal was to make a personal connection with every Soldier,” Loghry said. “We really tried to minimize any focus on mental health.”
Loghry added that the goal is to provide another safety net for Soldiers to utilize when reintegrating back to home life. She said the program is not meant to focus solely on mental health issues, although such professionals were included within the group of 18.
Throughout the demobilization process, the team arrived in three separate groups, arriving one day before each group of Wyoming Soldiers arrived to Fort Hood, and staying for three days during out-processing procedures.
Ultimately, the goal of the program is to offer reintegration resources on a more personal level, through the immediate interaction upon return to the United States and continuously once the Soldiers have returned home.
“When you’re surrounded by the Army, resources and interaction, it is pretty hard to get out of that safety net,” Barttelbort said. “When you get home to Lusk, Wyo., or small town Wyoming, that safety net is still there, but the distance to it is a lot further. So we are trying to collapse the size of the safety net, and make it a personal relationship.”
Now, with each Wyoming Soldier who deployed to Kuwait and Iraq for nearly a year under the Wyoming Army National Guard’s 115th Fires Brigade safely home, the program’s effectiveness will be put to the test. The first stage of this process was a success. The tools and resources have been put in place and the 30-day follow up will follow close behind.