Veteran gets unconventional therapy from volunteering

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Robert Hicks
  • 7th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  In 2007, a U.S. Army combat engineer was deployed to Iraq when his vehicle was impacted by a suicide bomber, killing two of four occupants and severely injuring him.

After spending more than two years in various military-medical facilities, receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and pain caused by his injuries, Kristopher Biggs returned to Abilene, Texas, to continue his recovery with the support of his family.

"For some reason I kept resisting it, thinking I could do everything on my own," Biggs said. "I wouldn't give up on thinking I could finish this out myself. One day I was thinking about it and realized I couldn't do it, and was getting deeper and deeper into a whole."

He began working as a volunteer at the Dyess Air Force Base fitness center as a way to reintegrate elements of his former military lifestyle into his recovery process: exercise, discipline, motivation and team dynamics.

"They welcomed me with open arms and were excited to have me," Biggs said. "It was the first time I felt anything like that in so long. When they gave me my uniform, it did something special to me. They don't realize how important that really was, but it was the first time I felt like a member of a team."

While volunteering at the fitness center he distributes equipment, conducts head counts and takes part in physical fitness classes that the fitness center holds.

He is no longer able to run, so he turned to swimming as an outlet.

"I was ready to change my life around and set some goals to get back on track, not to who I was before, but someone better," Biggs said.

"Even though he was never in the Air force, he was in the Army," said 2nd Lt. Sean Purio, 7th Force Support Squadron. "He doesn't wear the uniform anymore, but he is still one of us and we owe it to him to take care of him given the sacrifices he has made."

Biggs explained without Dyess, he would still be sitting on his couch at home.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder triggered by exposure to a traumatic experience such as an interpersonal event like physical or sexual assault, exposure to disaster or accidents, combat or witnessing a traumatic incident.

Veteran Affairs found that nearly 400,000 veterans across the nation, and in all branches of the military, were affected by PTSD in 2009 alone, ranking the disorder as the fourth most frequent disability connected with military service.