Tie a Yellow Ribbon

Today we put a new record in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest man made, I mean literally, yellow ribbon. Yeah!

I remember my first time dealing with the yellow ribbon and what it symbolized. It was back in the day of the Iran Hostage Crisis. (This was premilitary assignment for Ward.) I was a member local organization and we wanted to show that we cared and bring recognition to the plight of these prisoners, so American wouldn’t forget them. We folded little yellow grosgrain ribbons and fastened them with straight pins. We made up bunches of these and just stood outside of a local supermarket and asked people to wear them. It was purely symbolic, but people said time and again, that, yes, they would be happy to wear this ribbon, thank you for reminding me to think of them!

That little yellow ribbon packs a great symbolic punch!

Then when Ward went into the military I found that spouses would use that yellow ribbon when their husbands were deployed. The first time I tied yellow ribbons around trees was for the first Gulf War. That symbolism carried a lot more weight for us then . . . it was heavy with fear for our guys’ safety and longing for them to return home unharmed.

Now Ward is deployed again and I wear a little metal yellow ribbon pin and I marvel that something so mundane as a little yellow ribbon can hold all of the following meanings of love and pride and faith and honor.

So when our group of over 2000 wives, children and soldiers stepped out onto Godman Airfield on Fort Knox this morning to form a giant yellow ribbon with our yellow t-shirts and caps, we knew that it meant all that it has ever meant; we are proud of our soldiers and we can’t wait for them to come home!