FELIX B. SILVA, JR.
Patriot, Chapter 1919
Army, Iraq
Felix was an Army veteran working as a Fire Fighter
with Travis County when he was called to active duty with his unit in the
Texas Army National Guard for deployment to Iraq. When he was wounded by
sniper fire on February 10, 2005, he became the first “T-Patcher” of the
famed 36th Infantry Division to have been awarded the Purple Heart since
World War Two. This is his story.
Felix Silva, Jr. was
born in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1980, and he grew up there and attended
public schools through age 17. He went to Driscoll Middle School and then,
after completing tenth grade at Miller High School, he enlisted in the
Army. Felix entered active duty on October 27, 1997 and after Basic, he
qualified as a Parachutist and went through Ranger School. He was assigned
to the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York where he served in the
Long Range Surveillance Detachment (LRSD). He completed High School by GED
while in the Army, and while at Fort Drum, he made a personal decision to
seek a career as a Fire Fighter. So, after serving out his three-year
enlistment, Felix took his discharge in October 2000, returned home and
immediately went into the Texas Army National Guard.
Meantime, home had shifted from Corpus Christi to
Austin, Texas, because his parents had made that move while he had been away
in the Army. In Austin, Felix served his National Guard duty with the 143rd
Long Range Surveillance Detachment of the 49th Armored Division. He took
training courses in the medical field and did some interim employment as a
certified nurses aide and as a phlebotomist, all while pursuing his
long-range goal of becoming a Fire Fighter. He graduated from the Fire
Academy of Austin Community College in August 2002, and went to work with
Travis County Fire Control in June 2003.
As part of a re-organization in the Texas Army
National Guard, in May 2004 the 49th Armored Division was inactivated with
most of its units re-designated to become a part of the 36th Infantry
Division. Among those 36th Infantry Division elements was a newly
structured 56th Brigade Combat Team (BCT) and in the summer of 2004 the 56th
BCT was chosen to prepare for deployment to Iraq. For his part in the
re-organization, Felix Silva
was designated as a specialist in Company C, 2nd Battalion, 142nd Infantry
and he reported for active duty on September 7, 2004 and went through
“training-up” for deployment with the rest of the 56th BCT.
On January 1, 2005, the 2nd Battalion, 142nd Infantry
deployed to Kuwait by air. After two weeks preparation time, they then
moved into Iraq. Part of the mission of Company C was to provide a 12-man
security force at a Radio Relay Point that was located along the road about
15 miles northwest of Nasyria. Felix
Silva was part of that small
independently-operating guard force protecting the facility and they moved
up from Kuwait directly to the Radio Relay Point. It was situated on about
an acre of space surrounded by a protective outer wall with guard towers at
the corners.
On February 10, 2005, while manning one of the guard
towers, Felix came under fire. He identified a lone gunman firing from a
prone position on the side of the road near a bridge 200 meters away. There
were numerous civilians, including children, on the bridge and along the
road nearby. Felix returned fire very briefly with his Squad Automatic
Weapon (SAW), firing a few short bursts into the embankment at the base of
the bridge, intentionally firing only where there would be no danger to the
civilian traffic, but also no chance of actually hitting his assailant. The
gunman then took advantage by escaping in the crowd. It was only at that
point that Felix became aware that he had been hit. A round had passed
through the fleshy part of his arm and he wouldn’t have known it at first
except for seeing the holes through his jacket sleeve. A “dust-off” was
called and Felix was flown out on a Black Hawk medevac helicopter to the
hospital at Camp Adder on Tallil Air Force Base.
After two days hospitalization, Felix was returned to
duty. However, he did not go back to the Radio Relay Point but was instead
reassigned by the Company Commander (company headquarters was located at
Scania between Nasyria and Baghdad). Felix remained at the Tallil base,
where for the next four months he was on the “gun trucks” providing security
for re-supply convoys and patrolling the main roads.
He went back to the Radio Relay Point in May 2005 and
was there for the remainder of their tour in Iraq. In November 2005 they
were relieved by the Georgia National Guard and returned back to the United
States in mid-December. After two weeks back at Fort Hood,
Felix Sylvia was
released from active duty on January 7, 2006 and returned home to Austin.
Felix Sylvia
immediately returned to work with Travis County Fire Control where he is
assigned to Emergency Services District 4, Station 1 near Webberville. He
also immediately joined the Military Order of the Purple Heart and
affiliated with Chapter 1919. |
