COVINA, CA, U.S.A.
U.S. ARMY
CPL, HHC, 1ST BN, 22D INFANTRY, 2BCT, FORT HOOD, TX
10/22/2006, 28TH CSH BAGHDAD, IRAQ
CPL Creed spoke with his mother on Saturday, October 21st. He told her he’d be out of Iraq in 45 days and stationed back in the United States. He was making plans. “I am coming home,” his mother, Kimberly Creed recalled him saying. “He was real excited about that.”
“One of the last things he said to me was `I love you mom.’ I told him to be careful.” He promised he would. The next day he was killed by a sniper’s bullet while on foot patrol. He was 23.
CPL Creed graduated from Charter Oak High School in 2001. He had hopes of becoming a police officer, but was told to get experience in the military. He enlisted in 2003. “He was working hard to be a corporal,” according to SFC Franklin Spencer. “He wanted to be an NCO.”
He was sent to Fort Benning, GA for boot camp, followed by a year’s deployment to South Korea. He was next offered an assignment in Washington, DC. CPL Creed, however, asked for duty with a combat unit in order to perform the duties he had been trained for, according to his father Richard Creed.
Matthew was described by a nephew: “He sometimes made bad decisions, but whatever he did he went 100 mph and never looked back. But he always ended up doing a good job.”
CPL Creed’s family remembers a boy of 4 or 5 who after watching a television show about paramedics went to the back yard wearing his fire helmet, and did cardiopulmonary resuscitation on his teddy bear.
Matthew leaves behind his parents, his wife, Ashley, and his brother, James.
“Matt was an exceptional soldier – bright, energetic, and fun to be around. He was the gunner on my vehicle and an outstanding one at that. He was a dedicated professional with a quick sense of humor who always had a way of turning the ordinary into something extraordinary. He will be sorely missed by our crews, his company, and the entire battalion.”SM Richard A. Beal
At CPL Creed’s funeral: “Today we come to celebrate a hero’s homecoming,” The Rev. Judith Heffron said. “Matthew had a hero’s heart. He would do the job that needed to done with a glad and willing heart.”
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