TEXAS — A little over a year ago, Trevor Reed’s hour-by-hour reality consisted of a Russian prison cell in a labor camp hundreds of miles outside of Moscow.
The then 30-year-old wasn’t sure if he’d survive. He hasn’t forgot the feeling.
“Obviously, I still remember everything that happened and I think about that every day,” Reed said.
The Marine veteran talked with 25 News a few months after returning stateside late last April.
He recently visited with 25 News again to mark one year since returning home after a daring prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia.
“It takes a while to realize, ‘Okay I’m actually back here in the U.S. — I’m very safe in Texas.’ You get used to be being back here and going and meeting family, your friends, and doing stuff you used to do,” Reed said.
He says aside from a little trouble sleeping, his mental readjustment after being held captive for 985 days is actually okay.
Reed’s physical health is improving, too.
“[I] regained 45 pounds, been going to the gym, doing a lot of cardio. [I] do some military type of training stuff with my buddies here,” Reed said.
He has also become a powerful voice for others wrongfully detained abroad — advocating for Baylor alumni Brittney Griner before she was released — and still pushing for Paul Whelan and reporter Evan Gershkovich to be released. In both cases, he says the Biden administration should consider prisoner exchanges.
“If that’s what it takes to get them out of there, then I think the United States should absolutely do that. They have a duty to get Americans come who’re wrongfully detained,” Reed said.
He calls North Texas home these days, and lives about an hour away from his parents who're in Granbury. His extended family has deep ties to Central Texas, as well.
Reed is grateful to be near family and friends, while looking toward the future. He plans to return to college in the fall to study international politics and relations before, perhaps, one day working in the State Department.
The fact he can ponder that future at all isn’t lost on him, nor is the effort so many put forward to bring him home last year.
“Our reps on both sides of the aisle working to get me back, and especially without President Biden, I wouldn't be here. I’d be sleeping on a concrete floor eating fish bones, or I’d be dead."
