National Service Series: Matt Conroy
Listen Here: Itunes | Spotify | Overcast
My guest today is Matt Conroy. After graduating from Niagara University, Matt was commissioned as an Officer in the US Army, served four years in Alaska, and nine months as a military advisor to the Afghan National Army. He is currently a Captain in the US Army Reserve, and is pursuing his dream as a Country Songwriter, splitting his time between Charlotte, North Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee.
Matt and I discuss ROTC, the power of shared suffering, our thoughts on compulsory national service, the benefits and drawbacks of the military, and much more. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.
The purpose of this podcast series is to talk through problems facing the United States and explore the ways in which national service may solve those problems. The more feedback, the better. If you have any questions, comments, or follow-ups to this conversation, please reach out!
Selected links from the show:
Show notes:
2:55 - What is ROTC?
5:00 - How Matt decided to do the ROTC program.
10:30 - The demands and rewards of being part of ROTC in college.
12:50 - "Shared suffering and shared understanding is a powerful thing."
14:30 - How getting his butt kicked reinforced the power of belonging to a group.
17:00 - Different jobs in the Army.
24:50 - Matt's deployment to Afghanistan.
26:50 - "We were talking through linguists the entire time. It was a real exercise in patience. The Afghans are a very old culture...and they have so many nuances that we just don't understand."
27:30 - "The American solution to an Afghan problem doesn't always work."
31:35 - What Matt misses from his deployment - camaraderie, competence, and autonomy.
32:30 - How Matt's service shaped his world view.
33:50 - "The things that we choose to separate ourselves from one another don't have as much gravity as we allow them to have."
35:50 - Thoughts on cultivating community in a wealthy society.
39:05 - Matt's thoughts on compulsory service. He disagrees that we're more divided than ever.
47:40 - How military service set Matt up for his current career.
49:15 - "The biggest thing the military allowed me to do was to graduate college debt free."
54:15 - The importance of stepping out of your ideological principles.
56:00 - Check out Matt's music on Spotify!
