HOME FROM WAR, VETS
Former Marine helping others as Navy psychologist
Greg Matos was a Marine in charge of security at the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2004, when al-Qaeda terrorists attacked, killing five consulate employees and four security personnel.
The compound was overrun by five al-Qaeda attackers, armed with explosives and assault rifles. They shot at him, Matos recalled, and blew things up.
“I was able to keep most of the people who I was charged to protect safe that day, which I’m blessed that that’s the case,” said Matos, who was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat Valor and Department of State’s Award for Heroism for saving the lives of 150 U.S. citizens and consul employees that day.
“It was the defining experience of my military service, which put me on the path that I’ve been on for the last 10 years,” Matos said.
That path is helping his struggling fellow veterans.
About a year later, Matos came home to study psychology and was one of the driving forces behind the Train Vets to Treat Vets program at William James College in Newton. Matos was one of the program’s first graduates. The program, launched in 2010, offers master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology and is partly funded by the Department of Veterans’ Services. Currently, there are 45 veterans enrolled in the growing program.
“These vets have got an advantage when working with a fellow veteran because they have membership in the same cultural subgroup,” said Robert Dingman, director of the Train Vets to Treat Vets program.
“They have, oftentimes, a shared language, a shared set of experiences, a shared set of values, of tradition, that vets who are now clinicians — they get that,” Dingman said. “Vets are going to be more likely to hang in there long enough to get some treatment benefits when they’re actually working with somebody who has kind of walked that same walk that they’ve been on.”
About a month ago, Matos, now 35, married and living in Jamaica Plain, became director of the Boston Vet Center, a group of mostly combat veterans who also counsel veterans. Most of those they help served after Sept. 11.
Matos has five counselors on staff and hopes to double that number over the next couple of years.
Matos had joined the Marines when he was 18, just a few weeks before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. When al-Qaeda attacked the U.S. consulate in 2004, Matos was standing in the security nerve center and a few other fellow Marines were asleep in the Marine house. Matos orchestrated a response to the attack.
“It was the scariest thing I’ve ever gone through, will ever go through,” Matos said. “It’s had a significant impact on the Marines I served with and me as well.”
That’s why he does the work that he does.
After becoming a psychologist, Matos returned to active duty as a psychologist in the Navy. He’s now a Lt. Commander-select in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He also penned a book, “Shattered Glass: The Story of a Marine Embassy Guard.”
Matos encourages veterans to write, speak and share their stories.
“I recognize that I had within myself the capacity to create a space by having listened to the Marines who I served with and help them think through what that experience was like,” Matos said. “I knew I had an inherent capacity to create a space for my fellow veterans to process these challenging experiences and grow from them.”