917th Wing aids in “Purple” event

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Crystal Marie Jordan
  • 917th Wing Public Affairs Office
Barksdale Air Force Base, La. --  Members of the 917th Wing on Barksdale Air Force Base, La., attended and volunteered at a Yellow Ribbon "purple" Reintegration Program event at the American Airlines Training and Conference Center in Fort Worth, Texas, March 19 through March 21.

The Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program (YRRP) is a Department of Defense sponsored event which is designed to help with the numerous and sometimes difficult situations military members and their families deal with when returning from or preparing to deploy.

Being a "purple" event, the conference center in Fort Worth hosted Marines and Airmen from four different units from Texas and Louisiana, the 917th Wing being one of them.

"The periods of time before and after your deployment are filled with so many questions," said Tech. Sgt. Melvin Cargill, a team leader for the 917th Wing Security Forces, who attended the event with his wife and children. "This program gave us a chance to sit down and talk to people who have the ability to give us the answers."

Decreasing the amount of confusion for the servicemembers and their families is just one of our goals at a YRRP event, said Master Sgt. Harold Starkey, a deployment cycle support manager for the 917th Wing.

The program offers aid to military members by putting them face to face with personnel and groups who have the ability to answer their questions. Military career counselors, financial planners and insurance representatives spent the weekend doing just that.

Another goal of the YRRP is to aid in the reintegration of the military member with their families and to provide help with any personal matters needing to be addressed. Military family and life counselors along with mental health counselors and youth therapists were also available for all.