Matthis joined the military as a teenager. He was, in fact, tricked and forced into joining. He served in Afghanistan, in Germany, in Japan and in the Philippines. He did his tours of duty and he received an honorable discharge from the US Army.
Out of the military, he thought he could now pursue a degree in a journalism. So he moved to New York and enrolled in college only to have the military contact him -- after he'd been discharged -- and say, "You're going to Iraq."
He announced May 15, 2008 that he would not deploy to Iraq. On Father's Day of last year, he explained his reasons in a speech which included the following:
I stand here today as a Winter Soldier. To serve our nation, its military and its people in this dark time of confusion and corruption.
I stand here to make it known that my duty as a soldier is first to the higher ideals and guiding principles of this country which our leaders have failed to uphold.
I stand here today in defense of the US Constitution which has known no greater enemy, foreign or domestic, than those highest in this land who are sworn to be governed by its word.
I stand here today in defense of those who have been stripped of their voices in this occupation for the warriors of this nation have been silenced to the people who need to start listening.
We are here to honor the memory of our fathers who more than two centuries ago brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, as Abraham Lincoln once noted.
We are here to honor the struggle of our fathers and their fathers and their fathers before them to build this nation and bring it together -- through slavery and poverty, to sexism and racism, through materialism and imperialism. They built this nation and struggled to keep it alive as we've blundered and learned and blundered again.
And he didn't waiver.
By that point 'friends' in Congress had wavered.
But he didn't waiver.
Of the hearing last Tuesday, Matthis Chiroux writes:
I thought I'd be more nervous than I was, but I very much felt relieved. You know, there's all kinds of nifty ways to communicate now-a-days, and maybe call me old fashioned, but there’s nothing like looking someone in the eyes and telling them what’s in your soul. And I bared it for them.
I told them I believe that the war is illegal, and that as a Soldier, I thought it was my responsibility to resist it. I told them I was originally planning on deploying, despite my belief that the war is illegal, but that after I was exposed to Winter Soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan, I found clarity, and I found courage.
And the outcome? The board's recommendation now winds it's way's up the command (see Tuesday's snapshot and Friday's snapshot for more on that). A comment left at Matthis' site notes he moved a mountain and, indeed, he did. But Tuesday, Betty paired an excerpt of a Clive James' poem with news of Matthis:
My tears came late, I as fifty-five years old
Before I began to cry authentically:
First for the hurt I had done to those I loved,
Then for myself, for what had been done to me
In the beginning, to make my heart so cold.
It's from "Son of a Soldier." And Matthis' essay April 23rd demonstrated he wouldn't have to wait until 55 to open the floodgates and speak the truth. And may he continue to move mountains and fly high and proud.