From Marine to Student Reporter: Overcoming War Trauma through Journalism
For Matthew King, joining the armed services was a rite of passage into manhood. At 17, he enlisted in the Marine Corps in hopes to put himself to the test and discover himself in one of the most hostile places in the world.
Now a journalism student at the Reynolds School of Journalism, King’s journey from soldier to reporter has been long but leading towards positive change.
In 2009, President Barack Obama was sending a surge of troops to Afghanistan to take territory from the Taliban in the war on terror. Thus, King was sent was deployed to Helmand Province without any clear understanding of why they were going.
“We didn’t know the politics of the situation we didn’t know who the enemy was we were just trained to kill whoever the enemy is, they weren’t telling us here’s the history of the Taliban and why they’re bad just to do it and don’t question it.”
Operation Strike of the Sword involved King and his unit being used to trick the Taliban into attacking them thinking that they were outnumbered.
“We were literally used as bait for 10 days, and so I started realizing that day we were disposable and that was the beginning of turning on the government’s policies.”
At the time there was no moment to process the trauma happening to him, and it was only until he came home did it all set in.
“You didn’t have time to think about the trauma and your friends getting blown up because you’re in a survival mode,” King said “it’s only when you get home that you have time to think about it and I’ll just kind of comes out at once.”
Coming Back From War
After returning home to Seattle, King found it difficult to transition back into civilian life. Even though the military says they prepare veterans for the transition, King felt that it was mediocre at best and only so they could avoid liability.
“At one point in time I almost killed myself out of guilt,’ King said “I never really overcame the guilt and I was angry at the US government for putting us in harms way for a rich mans war.”
One of the ways that King recovered from his trauma was doing research on the government and on U.S. foreign policy. This research lead him to conclude the many deceitful ways the United States has justified armed conflict into different parts of the world and how he would make an effort to address these issues.
The Next Step
From there King decided to leave Seattle and enroll at the University of Nevada, Reno to do journalism. King hopes his future work can highlight atrocities committed around the world.
“I feel this obligation to do investigative journalism and documentary filming because of these atrocities and this sense of guilt from my previous occupation but if it kills me to try and help people as an investigative journalist then so be it as being in the Marine Corps there was nothing good or noble about it.”
Even though he sees the government as a major problem, he also sees the entertainment and media industry as romanticizing the more horrific parts of war and conflict.
“Hollywood and video games are not helping either since they’re trying to make it look in gruesome it’s still romanticizing war it still makes it look cool it still makes people want to experience combat trauma.”
If he were to speak today to someone interested in joining the military, he hopes to encourage them to try more positive ways to make a difference.
“Being in the military doesn’t help the person enlisted and the skills they learn don’t necessarily always transfer into the civilian world. If they want make the world a better place and make real change maybe try journalism as disseminating information is crucial right now.”
For now though, King plans on traveling this summer to areas of the world that have been affected by war and bring light to the people that have been affected by conflict. With this, King can made a positive change on the world he would like to see.
