Wyoming veteran helps others cope with combat PTSD

Wyoming veteran helps others cope with post-traumatic stress disorder

By KRISTY GRAY
Star-Tribune staff writer
Posted: Monday, April 4, 2011

On April 1, one year ago, Spc. Jason Billiot bypassed the homecoming ceremonies for the 700 Wyoming Army National Guard soldiers returning from a yearlong deployment to Kuwait.

He got off the plane in Casper and drove straight to the Wyoming Medical Center. His family’s Jeep had rolled over as they were driving from Cheyenne to meet him, and his wife and three children all needed considerable care when they finally made it back to Cheyenne.

Billiot had no time to decompress, to readjust to the family or let the family readjust to him.
“The things that guys dealt with right after they got back, I’ve dealt with here in the last few months, almost a year later,” said Billiot, a budget analyst with the Wyoming National Guard.

This winter, he attended a presentation by retired Wyoming National Guard major and former Laramie firefighter D.C. Faber. It was called, “How and Why We Are Different After War and Trauma: A Veteran’s Perspective.”

The presentation wasn’t about war stories, the telling of what Faber saw in Afghanistan. It was about coming home, struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and readjusting to a concept of time that isn’t hyper-focused on the present.

“It really kind of hit home for me,” Billiot said. “The family I knew was the family from 2009. You reintegrate yourself, but at the same time, you are reintegrating them to you.”
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Wyoming veteran helps others cope