No Time For Matthis
A few people have come on this blog and told us what Matthis was like during his service in the Army and after. Now, for the first time, we read about his pre-Army days – and the back story is not really that surprising. Matthis has changed his bio to to include this little fairy tale;
Matthis was impressed into the U.S. Army at age 18 during a period of homelessness in Alabama.
Well it turns that it’s not exactly true. He made a series of bad choices in his young life that left the Army as his own option according to his father who sent me the following email;
Matthis was called to the Lee County Justice Center (Alabama) by his juvenile probation officer after his father reported he had discovered his son was selling mushrooms (the drug kind) in a playground next to the local elementary school. The father met with and invited the local army recruiter, located his son, who was staying in a tent in an older lady’s backyard, and transported him to the Lee County Justice Center for a meeting with his probation officer, his father and the army recruiter. Due to Matthis’ not insignificant juvenile history involving repeated drug and theft incidents Matthis’ father made it clear that Matthis had a choice of joining the army or his father would file a complaint with the Opelika Police Department and testify against him. Matthis probation officer made it clear that being found guilty of selling a controlled substance in such close proximity to an elementary school, combined with his juvenile history would likely result in a minimum 5-year sentence in the State Penitentairy as an adult convict. In the presence of his Juvenile Probation Officer Matthis then turned to the army recruiter and said, “It looks like I am joining the team”, to which the army recruiter asked, “So what do you like to do, besides drugs?”
So, anyway off Matthis went to the Army and he actually fared pretty well – Sergeant in five years, made it through 5-jump-chump school, assignments to Japan and Germany, honorable discharge. And then the Army called him back for a few months of his IRR obligation and he decided that he didn’t want to cut his hair again and declared his intention to ignore the order and he made a big scene. His father visited him on Fathers’ Day 2008 when Matthis was “hiding out” in the DC IVAW treehouse. While they were down on the National Mall touring DC, Matthis threatened his father;
…he threatened to reveal the details of how I pushed him into the army. The discussion ended abruptly when my response was “the truth was fine with me, go right ahead.” He looked perplexed…
Oh, and that whole anti-war thing? For Matthis, it’s situational and subject to revision;
I asked him earlier that day why he was doing this and he told me he felt the war in Iraq was illegal. I asked him what if the army would be willing to commit to send you to Afghanistan instead. He told me he would not hesitate to go, that war was sanctioned by the U.N. and was legal. He was very clear about that.
That’s funny because in April 2009, he apologized for his minuscule part in the occupation of Afghanistan to Afghanistan peace activist Malalai Joya when he said “[I]n 2005, for a brief time, I helped occupy Malalai’s country, and it was wrong.”
The only thing Matthis occupied in Afghanistan was the corner booth at the Baskin Robbins on Bagram airbase – if he even went at all. Thus far, I haven’t seen any evidence that he even went to Afghanistan.
Oh, and the part about being homeless, well, it seems his father asked him what he was going to do after high school and he told his father he was going to “hang out” and his father told that’s not an option, that he had ten days to decide what he was going to do with his life. At the end of the ten days, Dr. Chiroux put Matthis’ stuff in a storage locker. Matthis pitched a tent in a friend’s yard and sold drugs at a playground near an elementary school. That’s homeless to Matthis.
The only reason he was homeless is because he’d burned bridge after bridge behind him until he had no choices except the militar – and he was damned lucky they took him. So he repays the Army for giving him an opportunity to straighten his life out (and paying for college) by thumbing his nose at them when they needed him during the Surge. So he treated the Army like he treats everyone else in his life.
And, oh, those schools that let him talk to their kids, I wonder how they’d like to know that he sold drugs at a playground next to an elementary school. Knowing schools these days, they’d probably make him a guidance counselor.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Usual Suspects
Trying to wrap my head around the how he got in the Army part. If the story is true, he clearly broke several federal laws and the recruiter did as well. Recruiters are forbidden from enlisting folks in lieu of jail or judgement by the local constabulary/judiciary. I’m pretty sure there are several documents you sign or initial stating that fact and your understanding of it as well as you saying that your enlistment is not in violation of those rules. Very curious.
Finrod–it’s when charges are filed, then dropped in lieu of enlistment that an applicant is prevented from enlisting. Sounds to me like no charges had yet been filed, just the threat of them.
And “impressed”? Seriously, Mattis? A press gang just scooped you off the street against your will and chained you to a ship? Really?
He’s lucky he was able to join at all. Nowadays, anything involving possession of drugs or paraphernalia is an automatic disqualification, even if it happened when one was a juvenile. Also, the recruiter was in a gray area just being there; we are not permitted to interfere with any aspect of the legal process. By just being there, the recruiter may not have directly violated regulation, but it’s a sure bet myself and my co-workers would think twice before doing such a thing. My career is much more important than some little trouble making teenager.
I’ve known plenty of Soldiers who did their time, got out and then got called back up. Most sucked it up, reported and came back home after their continued service. One good friend ended up getting out of his IRR call-up due to PTSD. He had three tours (Afghanistan ’02, Iraq ’03 and ’05-’06) as a light Infantryman, had some very bad experiences and is a legit as they come. Regardless, he is now a happily married father and sees no reason to taint his service by associating with an “anti-war” group.
I like his father’s mentality, though. My own children are nowhere near old enough to join yet, but my oldest will be in a few years. I’m already making it clear to her that there is no free ride in life. Do good in school and stay on the straight and narrow, go to college and/or join the military. Alternatively, get a steady paying job and start taking responsibility or find her own way. A father’s love is forever, but we can’t baby our children all their lives. I’ve seen what happens when a sixty-year old mother tries to continue to support her twenty-something daughter as well as her deserter husband and children.
Well, his dad sounds no different than my dad. My dad had the same attitude, although I wasn’t selling drugs and was gainfully employed, my dad still asked what I planned on doing after graduation and I was told that I had to do something, because there was no free ride. Best advice a kid can ever get. I think Mr. Chiroux put it as good as any dad could.
As for Matthis…..it’s a sad commentary that he had a way out, took it, then slid back into his old life instead of continuing on. Now, he just uses an anti-war group as his umbrella in order to continue the lifestyle he has chosen for himself.
“I asked him what if the army would be willing to commit to send you to Afghanistan instead. He told me he would not hesitate to go, that war was sanctioned by the U.N. and was legal. He was very clear about that.”
I remember back a few years ago when lots of these turds used to use that same line. Theyu’d say something like “Oh, I’m not a pacifist. If this war was legit, I’d be out there on the front line. I’d totally go to Afghanistan.”
Of course, soldiers can’t pick and choose which wars they fight in. Even so, the idea was that they were completely patriotic and they would fight in any just war, just not in this Iraq War.
Isn’t it funny how the Afghanistan War–which was authorized by the UN–is now an illegal war as well? When did that happen? I guess it just goes to show that the Matthis’s of this world throw around the term “illagal war” without wild abandon.
I had always heard that the days of “join the Army or go to jail” were over.
Is some one lying here?
In any case, selling mushrooms at the kiddies’ playground? Sheesh. I always knew he was an upstanding citizen.
Does anyone knoiw what his MOS was?
Actually, he was a 46Q – print journalist. You can google for some of the articles he wrote while on active duty.
Broadcast journalist, if I’m not mistaken. Or at least something to do with journalism.
As for “join the Army or go to jail” that has been gone for decades. If you have any pending charges, the recruiters are not supposed to do any processing, to include the ASVAB. Even speeding tickets have to be paid prior to joining.
I really do enjoy these Matthis stories.
Yep. That sounds like the Matthis we all remember from high school. I believe I’ve mentioned before that he tried to sell his grandmother’s pain pills at school. Guess he didn’t think she needed them. Class act that one.
“that war was sanctioned by the U.N.” Oh, wow, what IDEALISM!!! If an international bueracrapcy, with a record for “peacekeepers” and diplomats that engage in child molestation & sex trade, ‘sez war is hoki-doki, he’s down for it. Toolbag.
Impressed into service… Like American sailors just prior to the War of 1812? Looks like someone learned a new word.
We used to sing that cadence in basic training–join the army or go to jail. I always thought that it harkened back to a time when judges used to cut deals for youthful offenders that they could either join the military or go to jail. The idea was that the military would make a man out of the kid, make him straighten up and fly right. Down the road, it would be better for the young man to have an honorable discharge from the military than a prison record. I think the military got sick of being the depository for criminals.
It wasn’t until years later that I started to wonder if I misunderstood the cadence. “Join the army or go to jail” might also be a throwback to the times of the draft. If you got your draft notice, you could either go into the service or get thrown in jail.
Anyway, Matthis is a douche.
Jr AG,
Is that “toolbag” or douchebag?
Inquiring minds, etc.
Selling drugs like that around those kids? What a loser. Of course, it shows you what IVAW is all about when they let him become their poster-boy.
sINCE i DOUBT mATTHIS SERVED IN THE bRITISH nAVY DURING THE WAR OF 1812, i THINK HE MEANS HE WAS IMPRESSED BY THE SALES PITCH AND SIGNED PAPERS WITH THE RECRUITER.
Definition #3 of toolbag from the Urban Dictionary:
“A person who is more than a plain tool, or dick, but is equivalent to a bag of tools, or a sack full of dicks.”
Sorry for the above caps. I didn’t realize my lock was on.
Dear Doc,
Caps lock is not your friend. And as opposed to the press gang, Mattis could have always said no to the recruiter and risked going to jail. Then he’d be a civilian by now, and not nearly as universally known as a douchenozzle and a RAPIST.
Damn, that’s almost as bad an how-he-joined-the-Army story as one starting “Found naked with a sheep… “
And “bad” I mean as in f*ckin’ stupid.
Sparky:
Yeah, I know. I use CAPS lock with one of my programs with work and then I didn’t read it because I was sneaking a post before I brought in a client. My own stupidity. There is never time to do it right, only time to do it over.
I was being a smart ass. Mathis joined the army because he wanted to. Whether he had other options or not is his problem. He could have gone to jail, he could have skipped town. He could have joined the circus etc. Mathis made a choice. Period.
JuniorAG: “If an international bueracrapcy, with a record for “peacekeepers” and diplomats that engage in child molestation & sex trade, ’sez war is hoki-doki, he’s down for it. Toolbag.”
He was probably hoping to get in on the action.
Matthis:
If I thought you were man enough to listen to some good adult style advice, I would offer this:
It is not all about yourself. As a father, and having been a son, (dad’s deceased now. He was impressed into a coffin.), I know first hand that one of the greatest accomplishments a child, (especially a son), can make is to make his father proud. This comes way higher than pleasing ones self, even higher than pleasing some junkie chick with loose panties. Without having ever met him, I believe that I can say that your father loves you. That is an emotion that you apparently know little about, but one that cannot be altered. It is there or it is not. The one that can be altered is fatherly pride. And it can only be instilled by the child, not by distortion by the parent, not by some imaginary obligation. No matter what you ever accomplish, should you make your first accomplishment, (none yet, believe me.), nothing will be greater than to see the pride in a parents eyes. Not making that accomplishment makes you a loser of the first order. Not having made your father proud means that you haven’t absorbed even the most basic of education. Any of your fans, all of your fans, are not there because of any semblance of greatness on your part, but most likely because you are their tool, or their “source”. To them, you are 100% disposable. Just use you up and throw you out, like you’ve done with so many in your life, from your family on. By your actions, you’ve pissed on MY Troops, pissed on MY country, pissed on your best chance at being someone special, “an achieving, loving son”.
What a loser. But, as I said at the top: “If I thought you were man enough to listen to some good adult style advice,,,,,”
Anonymous (another guy) said: “JuniorAG: “If an international bueracrapcy, with a record for “peacekeepers” and diplomats that engage in child molestation & sex trade, ’sez war is hoki-doki, he’s down for it. Toolbag.”
He was probably hoping to get in on the action.”
If he went and joined the UN, that is… dumbass couldn’t even get that right. (Hell, he probably took some disgrunted dude seriously– “Lookin’ for sex? Join the Army, we get f*cked every day!”
Well said, Southern Class
Doc–noted. Thanks. Hopefully I didn’t come across as TOO snarky. And yeah, he made a choice, but par for Matthis, he blames everyone else for his bad ones.
i wouldn’t call Matthis a douchebag or toolbag. That would give him a useful, legitimate purpose in life. Instead I would classify him as a piss-infested cumbubble.
Isn’t Mathis a bunk mate of Bill “The Assassin” Perry?