His plans to join the military were already in the works, and as he watched the live feed of the second plane hit the south tower he was unmoved in his resolve to join.
He went to basic training in Feb of 2002 to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. And this basic training was no joke... We are talking h-a-r-d! But the difficulty in basic training gave his testimony of Christ and desire to serve a LDS mission.
Matt has had one deployment, a very difficult deployment, to Iraq in 2004-05. For one year he was a light infantrymen, walking the streets of Kirkuk and Baquba. He lived on a base with just 130 other guys, about a tenth of which were Special Forces. (He did in fact go on many raids with these Special Forces guys.) Their days were long--13 hour shifts, easy--and the streets were dangerous. He experienced car bombs, ambushes, and fire fights.
In 2008 he renewed his contact with Idaho ARMY National Guard for another 3 years, and was promoted to E-5, or sergeant.
He is now in his last year with the Idaho ARMY National Guard, and is in the ARMY ROTC program at Boise State University while he gets his Masters of Business Administration. He plans to make active duty ARMY a full time career, being a human recourse officer. He will commission as an O-1, second lieutenant, in May of 2012.
He is grateful for all the opportunities that the ARMY has given him. Namely his US Citizenship (received in 2006), all the wonderful benefits for school, leadership experience, and long lasting friendships.
Matt is the ARMY's man. Now, and probably forever.
.............................
And can I just say that I am so proud of Matt? I'm so proud of Matt.
He is currently the number one student in the ROTC program, in all of Idaho (excluding U of I). He is the cadet battalion commander of ROTC, the highest rank, and is pretty much in charge of all ROTC programs in Idaho (Boise State, BYU-I, Idaho State, and Northwest Nazarene).
When I think of all the he has accomplished, I start to say the Nacho Libre lines: "Ramses is number one. His legs are number one. His eyes are number one. His muscles are number one. Ramses is number one."
And any day now we should find out if we get active duty or not. Ek!
Anyway, thank you Matt for working so hard and giving so much to God and Country...
... If you are not a general in 2 years I'll be very disappointed. ;)
2 comments:
hahaha! Matt will be a general someday I'm sure! Let me know when you find out if he's in!
I still remember that one time in the 56th ward at BYUI he shared that story of being right beside a car bomb in sacrament meeting. Absolutely crazy how much he must have been and experienced! You have every reason to be proud of him! :)
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