Once he led the BYU Cougars on the gridiron, but soon Matt Berry could be leading men into battle. The former QB is getting ready to go to officer training school and then maybe overseas.
On last election day 2007, while many of us were voting, Matt Berry was doing something else patriotic. He was enlisting in the Army.
Despite the concerns of his family, Berry wanted to deal with something that had long been on his mind: 9/11.
News of 9-11 came to Matt Berry during his LDS mission in Panama. That's when he heard a neighbor suddenly yelling at him.
Matt Berry: Hey, somebody has blown up your country."
Five anguished years later, Berry still couldn't escape the ghosts of those terrorist attacks. So, he signed up for the Army National Guard.
Berry: "I think its love of country, it's love of family, its love of the values Americans hold."
Having now completed basic training, we asked Berry if there are similarities between throwing bombs and facing them. Berry: "It helped me immensely going through basic training because the relationship between my drill instructor and me was parallel to my coaches and me."
Berry's next assignment takes him to Alabama and officer candidate's school. After that, possibly Iraq or Afghanistan.
We asked him if he was scared.
Berry: "I am not going to sit here and lie to you and say I'm not scared or it hasn't crossed my mind or I am going to be some tough soldier. That's not the case. It's crossed my mind many times and the fear is sometimes paralyzing."
And while Berry waits for officer school to start, he'll continue working with consource.org. That's a project to help educate Utahns and Americans about the U.S. Constitution.
