A soldier's mission: He helps students with their conflicts
In his year in Iraq, Carlos V. Silva rushed onto smoldering battlefields to counsel soldiers who were too traumatized to climb back into the gun turrets of Humvees.
Now, a month after his return, the US Army Reserve major is working again at a South End school and is advising troubled teenagers who are struggling to balance school with acute emotional problems.
Silva has the same goal at McKinley South End Academy he had on the battlefield. He wants to help others recognize the root of their problems and to work through their fears.
Silva, 43, won a Bronze Star for his work with the 883d Medical Company Combat Stress Control Unit, leading a four-member team that counseled 2,000 soldiers stationed near the Iranian border.
He filled a role that began gaining prominence during the 1990s in the first war against Iraq, in Operation Desert Storm.
He recalled speaking for hours in Iraq with a young medic overwhelmed by the rush of life-and-death decisions in a war zone. His aim was to bolster confidence and get soldiers back into the field, where they could support other troops.
"It's like the kid here who is struggling in school," Silva said yesterday in an interview at McKinley. "The goal is to get him back into the classroom."
At the school, he engages students and builds their trust with the same affable smile and disarming humor that he used with soldiers.
"When I'm in a bad mood and I don't want to be around nobody, he comes around cracking his little jokes and lifting my spirits," said Cosme, 19, a 10th-grader from Jamaica Plain.
For Silva, the seemingly incongruous roles of soldier and social worker have meshed. He blends rigid military discipline with the probing of a therapist, in an attempt to bring some order to chaotic worlds, whether a high school or a war zone.
The Stoughton native's master of social work program at Boston College was interrupted when his unit was activated for Desert Storm, although he never made it overseas. Outside the military, he had been counseling prisoners until he got an idea in graduate school.
"Somebody suggested, 'Why not work with kids before they end up in prison?' " Silva said. "That's how I ended up here."
He is one of four social workers serving 97 students in one of the four schools housed at McKinley Academy for students with intense emotional and behavioral issues. When Silva patrols the boisterous hallways, the muscular physique of a soldier bulges beneath his shirt and tie.
He spends much of his time listening, working to head off trouble before it starts. Yesterday at McKinley, a 16-year-old student greeted him as Major and casually mentioned the name of his new foster parent.
"When I left, you weren't in a foster home," said Silva, who explained that the teenager had been having trouble with his father. "Remember, you've got to let me know when things change."
Silva took a similar tack in Iraq, where many of the soldiers were only a few years older than McKinley students. He tried to talk about stages of grief before a unit suffered a casualty and initiated conversations about how normal it was for troops overseas to have trouble sleeping.
During Silva's tour, life continued at McKinley Academy. Cosme said the last year, with Silva away in Iraq, was his worst in school. He needed the presence of Silva at the front door.
"I prayed to God we'd see him again, "Cosme said.
When word came to McKinley that Silva was coming home, students and faculty raised $270 to have a banner made. A month after Silva returned, the sign still hangs outside of the school, welcoming the major back each time he pulls into the parking lot.
"The students are very used to people who go away and don't come back," McKinley's headmaster, Bonnie Miller, said of Silva's homecoming. "It was very heartwarming. These kids are worth coming back to."
