Wounded Warrior informs, inspires D-M Airmen

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jake Richmond
  • 355th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  "I look at Sergeant Slaydon, and I see a hero."

That's how Brig. Gen. Paul Johnson, 355th Fighter Wing commander, introduced retired Tech. Sgt. Matthew Slaydon before the former explosive ordnance disposal NCO took the stage and told his story to hundreds of people at the Mirage Club here Feb. 5.

Wearing the same camouflage uniform as most of the audience, it was a little more difficult to notice Sergeant Slaydon's left sleeve was empty. And it was only when his wife, Annette, took his right arm and led him to the podium that it become clear that he was blind.

His easygoing demeanor and natural charisma stood in stark contrast to his obvious physical losses. He said he prefers to still think of himself as "just one of the guys," and when he started talking, that's exactly how he seemed.

But he's clearly more than that. He lost his left arm and his sight on an EOD mission in northern Iraq on Oct. 24, 2007. That's when a 15-pound improvised explosive device detonated right in front of him and blasted him 20 feet through the air. His teammates were stunned that he was still alive.

"I was apparently conscious," Sergeant Slaydon said, relaying memories of the witnesses, since his own is blank. He said his teammates told him he even tried to stand up before losing consciousness.

He got immediate treatment from an Army medic in his convoy. Then, by a stroke of pure luck, a medical evacuation helicopter was able to pick him up within 12 minutes. It was on that chopper that he officially died; the medic onboard continued doing chest compressions on him until he came back to life.

Doctors stabilized him at Kirkuk Air Base's medical facility, and he then flew to the Air Force Theater Hospital at Balad Air Base for a 10.5-hour surgery. It was around that time that people started thinking he might actually survive.

But Sergeant Slaydon would be the first to tell you that surviving was just the beginning. He didn't know it at the time, but he still had to spend time at three more hospitals - a short stay at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, followed by a few days at Walter Reed Army Medical Center's intensive care unit, and then 15 months at Brooke Army Medical Center.

It was at Walter Reed that he was finally reunited with his wife. And it was his wife who had to break the news to her husband that, when the bandages finally came off, he still wasn't going to be able to see.

It devastated him. A natural lefty being without his dominant arm was bad enough. The news of his permanent blindness sent him into depression. He said, more often than not, convincing himself to get out of bed was the hardest thing he'd do all day. He didn't see the point. He wanted to give up.

"That's when I thought, 'No. I haven't earned that right. I'm still an NCO,'" he said. "I'm not a religious man, but I took that (military) oath very seriously. I don't remember it having an expiration date.

"So I dug really deep. I remembered my oath. I remembered my NCO creed. I reached down and grabbed that spark...it was hard to hang onto it, but it kept me going."

With the help of his wife and several Air Force leaders - including a how-are-you-holding-up phone call from the secretary of the Air Force himself - Sergeant Slaydon kept pushing through the struggle.

After finishing physical therapy and mastering his depression, he's now occupying his time by speaking to his fellow servicemembers. He wants them all to understand the importance of their fight to protect liberty, and he's happy to help inspire them to overcome adversity.

He says, considering everything that's happened to him, he wouldn't do anything differently. He has no regrets.

"Even though that (terrorist) didn't kill me, if I had stayed down, he'd still win," he said. "So I got back up. And he made me even more dangerous - that blast blew me across the world so I could stand here at this podium. I can't go back over there and kill him or his kind, but I've been given this amazing opportunity to kill his ideas."