Heather Silvio:I'm Heather Silvio. I'm a lieutenant in the Public Health Service Commission Corps. I work as a clinical psychologist at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. I serve primarily airmen in training. There's about 7,000 of them on our base. I also work with their families. I work with returning warriors who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. I joined in December of 2008, and I joined because I've always wanted to work for the Federal government. I wanted to be able to give back. And I specifically wanted to also work with military members, and so once I read about the Department of Defense Public Health Service Initiative that would allow placing officers on bases, I knew that that was what I wanted to do.

The structure of PHS is actually one of the reasons that I joined, for two things. One, because I like to have as many different experiences as I possibly can. And so being able to move every 2 or 3 years to start new jobs in new cities is something that I very much look forward to. But then also, by knowing that that's going to happen, or if I wanted to stay someplace a little bit longer that that would be an option. It opens up the avenue for me to be able to start a family. Working as a psychologist,I'm able to help returning warriors with a lot of their difficulty sometimes reintegrating into society once they return. Obviously, the one that most people have heard about is post-traumatic stress disorder. And so I can think of one particular warrior who had returned. He was having a lot of trouble just going from one side of the base to the other, because of construction. He'd hear a jackhammer and he'd start flinching. You know, so just that kind of difficulty reintegrating. So I feel like my role is to assist these men and women in resolving those issues so that they can go back to being fully functioning members of society over here.

What gives me the greatest satisfaction is being able to help somebody find their way back to where they were before. Or to-even if they've never been fully happy, to a place where they are happy, where they're content, where they're pleased with what's going on, internally and externally. I view myself more as a vaccine. Being able to go in to help people to prevent them from becoming sick with mental health issues. And then, if I'm seeing them after the fact, more like an antibiotic, to help them to be better, to go back to the way that they were functioning before. I like to be active outside of work. Some of the things that I enjoy doing, I really like to be outside. I love to run, I love to work out. I like to write. I've written and published a book. I wrote a screenplay that won an award last year. I wrote and produced a short film I'm currently working on another book, as well as another screenplay. And I'm also very involved in theater. And every community that I've lived in, I've been involved in community theater, and I'm planning to do the same thing here in Wichita Falls.

I like being a commissioned officer. I'll be honest, when I was first commissioned, it felt sort of strange, but you know, as I wore the uniform, and I interacted with other people in uniform, it really felt a very strong sense of pride, of being a part of something with such an incredible history, and in my opinion, such an incredible future. And so I look forward to remaining a part of that, as an officer.

If someone were interested in the Commission Corps, I would absolutely recommend it. I've already had several people who have spoken with me, that they are interested in doing it. To me, the Commissioned Corps means community, means giving back, means being supportive of everyone that you interact with professionally, you know, not just on the job, but as other members of the Corps. Being a part of something larger than yourself.