To find Stanley Theodore’s house, turn down 182nd Street in Springfield Gardens, Queens, and look for the ramshackle house with the grand old oak tree and the six-foot-wide American flag draped from the front window.

He opens the door before you can knock. Mr. Theodore is a long, lithe drink of water with a breeze-soft Trinidadian baritone. He has a Vietnam Veterans baseball cap pulled down over gray dreadlocks; he wears shorts and his beloved Jimi Hendrix T-shirt.

He smiles and ushers you into the home he shares with his children. He is a retired postal carrier who won one customer service prize after another. But post-traumatic stress disorder trailed him after his Vietnam military service like a hound dog on a scent.

Some years back, after 33 years on the job, he began to have palpitations and panic. He felt obliged to take retirement.