Matt Kuntz of Helena, one of the major figures in Faces of Combat, is one of 18 “everyday Americans” selected to join President-elect Barack Obama on a Whistle Stop Tour to the nation’s capital on the Saturday before Inauguration Day.

Kuntz was chosen for his efforts in helping the mentally ill after his stepbrother Chris Dana committed suicide after returning from combat and being kicked out of the Natiopnal Guard with a less-than-honorable discharge. His work has led to changes in the way the Montana National Guard screens returning soldiers for post-traumatic stress disorder — and that was the focus of Faces of Combat.

A former Army officer and attorney who is now head of the Montana office of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Kuntz met with Obama in Billings last fall as the Illinois senator was heading to Denver to accept the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention. Kuntz gave him a copy of Faces of Combat, which the president-elect promised to read. A few days later, in a nationally televised speech fromn Columbia University, Obama talked abolut ways in which the Montana National Guard had improved mental health services for its returning combat vets and referred to it as a national model.

Kuntz will fly to Philadelphia with his wife a few days before the Jan. 20 inauguration. They will travel by train with Obama to Washington, D.C. and then attend the inaugural ball.