MATTHEW COMMONS - BOULDER CITY - 02/18/81 - 03/04/2002
Matthew – Matt – Mattyboy…what a great person this kid/man/soldier was!!
I almost caught him ‘toilet papering’ the big loquat tree that used to grow in our front yard in Boulder City; when I opened my front door to good naturedly chase the group of boys away, he was positioned on the far side of the tree and was able to run unobstructed down the street for his successful get away.
He became my daughter Brittney’s best friend and sweetheart, the cheerleader and the skate boarder. He graduated from Boulder City High School and went off to the University of Nevada, Reno. Brittney moved in with my good friend to finish her senior year at BCHS when I moved back east for work. Britt and Matt grew apart for awhile, he was off to join the Army Rangers and she moved in with her sister Jennie while she worked and enrolled in a couple of college classes.
It was after he had joined the Special Forces that they acknowledged the special feelings they had for each other; two delightful home town kids talking about their future together. Matt was sent to Afghanistan, they wrote each other on a regular basis and he phoned her every other Friday. Britt told me she could always tell when it was Matt calling – when she answered her phone there would be a series of click, click, more clicks then a silence and finally the sound of his voice.
He had phoned her on Friday, March 1, 2002. He told her how cold it was in the high altitude mountains of Afghanistan and of the snow which was so different from the 110 degree summers of low attitude Boulder City.
He died the next Monday, March 4th, just weeks after his 21st birthday, high on a mountain top, Takur Ghar, during a rescue mission for a fellow soldier. An unmanned/unarmed predator drone (remotely flown from Nellis Air Force Base – Las Vegas) was flying overhead, capturing the disastrous mission. The battle was fed live to the White House, the Pentagon and the generals who planned the mission; the fight was watched by them in safe confines while Matt and seven other amazing men/soldiers gave their lives. He was the first soldier from Nevada to die in Afghanistan, during the offensive action named Operation Anaconda.
Matt is the bottom right photo – he was the youngest of the eight soldiers who perished that day.Matt was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on March 11, 2002, exactly six months after September 11, 2001. There was a special ceremony taking place at the Pentagon which is located next to the Arlington Cemetery; in remembrance of those who had lost their lives 6 months earlier and to lay a building stone to begin the repair of the area that was destroyed when Flight 77 flew into it.
During the grave site ceremony for Matt we could hear the military band’s music softly wafting over from the Pentagon and they could not have helped but hear the 21 gun salute for Matt. It was a day never to be forgotten.
Matt’s family and his BCHS class, in honor of the wonderful and delightful kid/man/soldier that was Matthew Commons, have placed memorial stones in the courtyard of the Chapel at Veteran’s Cemetery in Boulder City. Every Memorial Day and on his birth date I visit and touch his name on those memorial stones on behalf of his Mom, Pat, who no longer lives in Boulder City and is far from Arlington. I am honored to have known him.
Chat later
Julene
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