Frederica Freyberg:
A special Thanksgiving week for members of the Wisconsin Army National Guards 951st staff engineering unit. After 10 months in Afghanistan, they are home. The 951st performed some of the most dangerous tasks in all of Afghanistan. They worked with explosives, including the deadly task of clearing supply routes of road side bombs. Among the honors the unit earned 100 combat action badges, four combat medic badges, 15 purple hearts and 21 bronze stars. One member of the unit was killed during the mission. For more on the transition home, we welcome Lt. Col. Tammy Gross, chief of the service member support division. Thank you for being here.

Tammy Gross:
You're welcome. Thank you for inviting me.

Frederica Freyberg:
What are returning servicemen and women, like those of the 951st experiencing these first days home?

Tammy Gross:
They'll be experiencing the entire gamut of emotions. Everything from a sense of accomplishment for a mission well done to, you know, anxiety returning home to maybe something unknown to excitement to be returning to their families and their communities and their civilian life they left behind.

Frederica Freyberg:
How hard is this transition home, and what kinds of services are offered to them?

Tammy Gross:
Well, everyone is going to experience their reunion differently and it — for some it may be difficult, and for most it's going to be just a simple reunion process, getting them reacquainted with their families and we have several programs that are available to them. In particular is our Badger Yellow Ribbon reintegration program. That program is designed to provide education and outreach and resources to the service member and their families to help them through this readjustment period. And we consider reintegration for a full year after they return.

Frederica Freyberg:
Are these programs mandatory or voluntary?

Tammy Gross:
They are mandatory. Yellow Ribbon is a DOD mandated program. And it's established in three phases. The first phase which typically occurs 30 to 45 days after return from the demobilization station. The second two phases are timed usually between 60 and 120 days and then the third one will be anywhere from 90 to 180 days.

Frederica Freyberg:
What kinds of screenings for things like PTSD are mandated for the returning service members?

Tammy Gross:
The PTSD screenings are part of the medical process. Before the service member returns from theater, they're going to complete an assessment with a mental health provider and then again at approximately 90 to 120 days they'll go through a second screening for their medical and mental well-being. But that's not part of our reintegration program. It's just a complementary program through the medical system.

Frederica Freyberg:
Now, we, of course, expect the return of more than 3200 members of the 32nd returning from Iraq after the New Year. What kinds of special provisions are we making for their return? It's such a historic deployment, and then it will be a historic kind of reintegration.

Tammy Gross:
Right. And we're excited to have all of our service members returning home, and we're not doing anything different for those 3200 soldiers that we wouldn't do for one single service member. So all of the programs that we have in place are for the smallest unit to the largest unit and of course, because there's so many returning with the 32nd brigade, we're having to increase the number of events and the number of personnel that will support the events, and we're requesting, you know, support from our surrounding states to assist us, and we're bringing in on-demand specialists to help with it.

Frederica Freyberg:
Now, what have we learned about how to reintegrate returning veterans?

Tammy Gross:
We've learned that it's important to provide them with information at spaced intervals. A lot of times the first time you hear something, you don't absorb it or maybe you don't need the service at that time. So you don't listen as closely, so that's why they hear information at the demobilization station and then they're going to hear similar information three more times through the reintegration process.

Frederica Freyberg:
That's interesting. What should veterans or their families do if they seek specific services because specific issues come up?

Tammy Gross:
That again, through the reintegration program, they're going to learn about all of the different services that are available through individual counseling, through our military one-source consultants, our military family life consultants. If it's a health issue, they may be working through tri care. Now that they're veterans, they can work through the veterans administration for their health and education benefits so there's lots of resources available to them. And as they go through the reintegration process, we're going to be talking to them about what specifically the Wisconsin National Guard will offer them, what the VA will offer them and how to contact those resources.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Well, Col. Gross, thank you very much.

Tammy Gross:
Thank you.