Matthis at Tufts
For some pointless reason, Tufts Daily, a student newspaper at Tufts University (which for some reason I thought was a conservative, traditional college), published an article by Alexa Sasanow entitled “Veteran Matthis Chiroux speaks out against the US military“. Notice it’s not wars he “speaks out against” anymore.
You can read the whole article for yourself and you’ll recognize they newest Matthis line that it’s the military that’s the problem now, not the wars. Probably because he can’t speak to the war anymore, since it’s been proven that he’s never seen a war. But that doesn’t stop from making people believe he’s been to one without saying he has;
Chiroux enlisted in the army soon after he graduated from high school, but not because he wanted to: He got into trouble with the police and was given the choice between being prosecuted as an adult in federal court or enlisting.
“I always say, I’m living proof that we do not have an all?volunteer army,” he said.
Yeah, he volunteered – he had a choice whether he should sell drugs at a grade school playground or not, and then he had a choice whether he wanted to take responsibility for selling drugs and go to jail, or volunteer to join the Army. A lot of kids his age (18 so how else would he have prosecuted if not as an adult?) don’t get the opportunity to choose.
After his five years in the army, during which he served as an army strategic communicator and journalist, touring in Japan, Germany, Afghanistan and the Philippines, Chiroux returned to the United States in 2007. He got an apartment in Brooklyn with the one person he knew in New York, a fellow veteran. The two engaged mostly in reckless behavior after returning to civilian life, Chiroux said.
“I was drinking excessively and being very physically impulsive,” he said. “One Sunday morning, I’d been up all night with a couple of women I was hanging out with — it was around 9 a.m. — and somehow we managed to get up on top of a skyscraper right next to Ground Zero. I was wasted and I remember standing on the edge of that building and looking down at the ground and seeing the wall stretch down from the tips of my toes to the sidewalk, 68 stories and the wind blowing. I went off like a rocket and it took me a while until I finally realized I may be having a good time, but there’s something wrong with me.”
Such self?awareness is difficult for many veterans to manage, Chiroux said, particularly if they’re dealing with post?traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as a reported 319,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are. Chiroux’s New York apartment?mate is one of them.
Yeah, PTSD put him on the roof edge. Even though he’d never witnessed a traumatic event that would cause PTSD. That’s why earlier he mentioned that everyone in the military has PTSD, so you could some sympathy for the ledge-balanced clown. Previously, he’s said that his PTSD was from interviewing real soldiers and hearing their stories. I guess he’s refined his condition.
He continues on blaming TAH for IVAW booting his scrawney ass;
While Chiroux had served for a year on the board of Iraq Veterans Against the War, he has since parted ways with the organization after receiving a lot of backlash from military communities for last March burning an American flag in Lafayette Park at an anti?war rally.
Actually, he left because he’d succeeded in alienating a large number of IVAW members with his behavior for more than two years. I mean if you alienate guys like TJ Buonomo and Geoff “Stolen Valor” Millard, you’ve really pissed a lot of people off.
“They buried my friends under the flag and that’s why I burned it. That flag killed my friends; soldiers had that flag on their arm when torturing people at Abu Ghraib,” he continued. “The military, they get to give you a symbol, tell you what it means and send you off to die with it. They’re going to wrap your story in that and burn the truth beneath it — why wouldn’t I burn it?”
I’m sure Matthis had friends buried with the flag. And if he did, he’d know that’s no way to honor their memory. But it all so much more about Matthis and his Ward Reilly image.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Phony soldiers, Usual Suspects
Suddenly, I’m less upset about my campus’ shitty paper not running *anything* for Veterans Day. Clearly it could have been much, much worse.
Matthis, you really need to consider getting a real job… All this belly-aching about eating BK burgers in Bagram for a week & never leaving the wire ain’t gonna carry your sorry ass through life forever….
JuniorAG – but he is going to try and milk it for all its worth.
Why hasn’t he gargled with Draino yet?
I can’t help but feel so sorry for his dad, who posts here occasionally. I can’t imagine how he reads that jackhole’s stories and doesn’t wonder where he went wrong. Not that I’m saying he did, but it has to creep in there.
Matthis, I hear that Bozo has been long passed. They could use a new clown and you seem to be one. Go try out?
jack ass
I love the part were it reffers to him getting a honorable discharge and his refusal to deply for a second time. Fact check fail.
And to think how much better off we and the rest of the world would have been had he gone to pound-me-in-the-ass prison or just taken that one little itty-bitty step with the sudden stop.
I think I did okay, under the circumstances. My daughter grew up in the same household, with the same dad. She is happy, successful, expecting and chose an absolutely wonderful man for her husband. A father could not be prouder. I keep a close eye on my son, from the shadows, and he knows it. I work diligently behind to scenes to address every lie and provide fair warning and will continue to do so. My son is welcome to sue me any time he likes, but then my attorney has advised me “The truth is an excellent defense”. My son’s 15 minutes of infamy are over, these are just the aftershocks as he fades away. But I am a father and have faith that his better angel will emerge and he will move on to become a positive, productive member of society. And I will watch that too, from the shadows, and be content. Life is rarely fair but always fair enough. 🙂
The site appears to have gone down.
Why does this played out assclown still garner so much attention? He’s done nothing except be a bitch about the whole thing. Thankfully he wears his class A’s everywhere so that everyone can know he’s full of shit. Lots of pretty ribbons and not one for actually doing anything. Shitbird even got to go to shutzenschnur. I wanted to do that as well but I never got a chance because I was…oh yea..deployed in the warzone all the time.
Try switching browsers. I couldn’t get it to load in Safari, but it works fine in Firefox.
Oh and Robert, I’m sorry you have to put up with this as a father. One day he might see the light and realize he’s been played by the same whackos that follow him around everywhere.
Scott,
It’s back up, thanks.
#7- Someone should email the girl who wrote this stupid article and tell her she got her facts all ass backwards. I wonder if she reported that he refused to deploy for a second time because he TOLD her that. God, I wanna rip my hair out!
Currently penning a letter to Tufts. Thank you TAH, wherever Mathis spread his lies, I hope all of us will be there to refute his claims. Even as a POG, it is fucking disgusting what this man is able to do and get away with.
Please, everyone, let these schools know the truth about Matthis. Let them know they have been duped and that real veterans do exist.
My thing is this…I don’t mind him speaking out against the war or even the military if that is what he chooses to do. But what I DON’T like about Matthis is that he feels the need to make up a bunch of crap. He’s a liar….and because of that he cannot and should not be trusted.
Every time I read about this guy, I see a statement that it was jail or the Army. I did 21 years in the Air Force, then worked as a GS employee for the Marine Corp Recruiting Command. Does the army allow people to enlist under those circumstances? The Air Force made me sign a statement saying I was not enlisting as a result of an agreement with prosecutors or the court, and the same policy was in effect when I worked for the USMC from 02 – 07. So what’s the real story?
http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=21155#comments – Comment #4
Sledge. Hammer. To. The. Dick.
I hate this lying sack of shit with every fiber of my being. If there is a just God in heaven he will allow me ten minutes in the ring with that traitor.
I’m a former Marine Sergeant and current Tufts Student. TAH has provided me with a lot of background information on this clown and John Lilyea e-mailed me personally with his service record and other information. I’m sending my response to the Tufts Daily first thing Monday morning, I hope it will shed some light on Chiroux’s trail of lies. Tufts is a relatively liberal institution but we have a strong military (current and former) population in both undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as a student group (ALLIES) whose specific purpose is to promote dialogue and understanding between veterans like me and civilian students. I’m sorry this has reflected so poorly on such an outstanding school, but I honestly feel this is a matter of editorial negligence–to an outrageous extent yes–and NOT part of a general anti-military undercurrent at the school.
Re: #18
I too had to sign a form stating that I was not enlisting in exchange for a judicial deferment. It’s something the military (esp the AF, Navy and Corps) are trying to get away from. They don’t need the bodies bad enough to take in aspiring criminals. That said the Army, as a consequence of many factors, is a substantially more lenient with their pre-reqs.
I’d be way of my lane to comment on the specific Army policy but I know for a fact that some partially under the table wink-wink, nod-nod goes on with judges. I know, personally, a couple guys who were told by their judge, “Look, I can’t tell you to do anything and the recruiter won’t promise you anything but if you were to demonstrate your recommitment to civil responsibility by enlisting I will strongly take that into account when considering a request for deferment.”
Mr Chiroux, I thank you for the explanation. I know it must be tough on you, I have four adult children of my own. I hope something comes along that is drastic enough for your son to wake up and change his ways, without doing terrible damage to his life. My prayers and hopes are with you and your family.