Matthew Hoh

I joined the Marine Corps in January, 1998. After service in Okinawa, Japan, I was stationed as a staff officer in the office of the Secretary of the Navy. I was there, as a junior bump on a senior log, when we invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003. I left active duty in spring of 2004 and served as a government official on a State Department team in Iraq for 12 months. On returning home I worked as an Iraq consultant for the State Department before volunteering for mobilization and taking command of a reserve Marine Corps combat engineer company in March 2006. My Marines, Sailors and I deployed to Anbar Province in support of of Regimental Combat Team (RCT) 7 and then RCT 2 from September 2006 to April 2007. I continued working for the Department of Defense and the State Department on the Iraq and Afghan wars until the Fall of 2009 when my conscience could no longer allow me to be complicit with our wars.