Nicole Brodeur / Times staff columnist
Picture's imprint won't fade

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It is the price Silicio is paying for standing in a cargo plane full of flag-draped coffins, taking a photograph and showing a country what it needed to see.

Three months ago, Silicio, 50, of Everett, was working for Maytag Aircraft in Kuwait. Her job included loading American soldiers' remains into planes bound for the United States.

One night in April, Silicio shot a photo of 22 coffins draped in flags and sent it to a friend. She wanted to show how the fallen were cared for.

The friend sent the photo to The Seattle Times, which got Silicio's permission to run it on April 18. Four days later, Silicio and her husband, David Landry, were fired.

Silicio's case made international news because the Pentagon bans the release of photos of military coffins.

But once the furor died down, Silicio found herself unemployed. The skills she had honed overseas and in her family's event-management business now seem worthless.

"I wish I could say that we were OK," Silicio told me the other day. "But we're not."

Their marriage is strained, their savings are sinking and they both feel beaten up.

"We are good people, hard workers," Silicio said. "But we have both been violated."

On top of that, she has become disillusioned with her country — a worry more acute now that her son, William, 22, has joined the Marines.
 
"Before this, I had blind faith about my government," she said. "But I don't believe in this war. I believe in our troops, but I don't believe in the reasons for being there."

That belief has fueled a new ambition: humanitarian work with an organization such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation or Amnesty International.

"That would be my dream," she said. "To end injustice in the world. I hate injustice."

We both had to laugh. She should know.

I asked Sherri Edwards, a career consultant who has worked with the Army Corps of Engineers, how Silicio may be viewed by potential employers: as a troublemaker who doesn't follow the rules, or as someone who should be admired for doing what she thought was right?

"There are going to be people for whom what Tami did is going to be an issue," Edwards said. "But there will be an organization that will look up to her as a hero."

Silicio must find an organization with similar values, "so she can talk about what happened and they can say, 'I get it,' " Edwards said.

For her part, Edwards said, "I think Tami is awesome, and that people are ridiculous."

For now, the couple keep trying to get beyond the photo, but it's hard. Not long ago, Silicio's husband got a job with an electronics company. One day, he saw the business next door loading caskets onto a truck. They were headed to Iraq.

Reach Nicole Brodeur at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She keeps the photo close.