For wounded Iraq vet, kindergartners are therapy

For wounded Iraq vet, kindergartners are therapy

November 8, 2008 - 2:58PM
CAROL MCGRAW
The Gazette
The kindergartners at Patriot Elementary School are busy pasting cut-out paper socks in smallest to biggest order, when the shouts ring out:

"Mr. Carlos. Mr. Carlos."

The dark-haired man in the Army uniform heads over to one table and crouches, eye level, to 5-year-old Caleb Marlatt who gives him a big smile and holds up his paper.

"Good job. Don't forget to put your name on it," the soldier says, moving on to other children who are eager for his attention.

Caleb, watching the other kids mob the soldier, says in a loud whisper, "Mr. Carlos is like my dad. My dad is in Iraq since I was a baby. I want to see him. Mr. Carlos is not my dad. But Mr. Carlos helps you like a dad."

And the kids, in turn, are helping Mr. Carlos.

Mr. Carlos is Staff Sgt. Carlos Barreto, a 41-year-old career soldier who was brain-injured in a bomb blast In Iraq. Now he's an aide at the Fort Carson school, where his Army job is to help the students recite the alphabet, learn to count and recognize written words. In doing so, he's finding that his own war injuries, including short-term memory problems, are getting better.

Barreto is one of 600 soldiers at Fort Carson who are members of the Warrior Transition Unit - soldiers who have been wounded or have other medical problems that prevent them from returning to active duty. They are provided with medical care and other services such as legal, financial, family and education counseling.

Some of the soldiers in the unit work on post; others work off base in apprenticeships and take classes that prepare them for employment when they leave the Army.

But Barreto is the only one from the local Warrior unit serving as a teacher's aide.
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