More than 450 members of the Mississippi National Guard and their families descended upon Vicksburg over the weekend to prepare for a deployment next summer.

The Yellow Ribbon Program, held at the Vicksburg Convention Center, was attended by about 1,300 people including the soldiers, their spouses and children over the weekend and it worked to prepare soldiers and their families for what they can expect during a deployment.

“Yellow Ribbon Program is a reintegration program to prepare soldiers and their families for deployment,” Lt. Christopher James, with Yellow Ribbon, said. “It can include everything from insurance to letting them know about their benefits for either childcare, home loans, education, you name it whatever the soldier needs while deployed or what ever the family members may need while their soldier is deployed, we offer that information to them.”

The Yellow Ribbon Program is mandatory for all units pre and post deployment, James said. The program over the weekend included members of the 150th Brigade Engineer Battalion, which will be part of more than 4,000 Mississippi guardsmen deploying in the middle of 2018. 

“We have these Yellow Ribbons, which is a venue to bring in all the soldiers and their families and educate the families on some of the benefits the Guard and the military have to offer while we are deployed,” Lt. Col. Paul Lyon, with the 150th, said. “It really is for the families because they get briefed on all the different medical benefits and pay benefits, we have counselors here they can meet with and talk with.”

Lyon said the unit will begin training in January and work towards a deployment in the summer. The goal of hosting the Yellow Ribbon Program was to prepare the families for the challenges they will face and also to help them develop a support system to lean on during the deployment.

“The biggest thing they get out of this is in the National Guard it is not like active duty where all the families are on one base,” Lyon said. “In the Guard, the families are spread from north Mississippi all the way to the south. We are one team deploying so this gives an opportunity for the family members to meet each other, share experiences so when we are gone they know each other.”