Matt and Kristin Zedwick

Facing page: He’s the combat kind of vet.
She’ll soon be the animal doctor kind of vet.
Matt and Kristin Zedwick, seen here below
Weatherford Hall, say they love the campus in
the spring. Photo by Dennis Wolverton
By Kevin Miller
Given the way their young lives are
going so far — each event leading to
another, including marriage and an appearance
on a top-rated television game
show — it’s hardly a shock to learn that
OSU students Matt and Kristin Zedwick
met after a battle.
It happened at the mainstay campus-edge
pub Clodfelter’s, after the Memorial
Union Program Council’s 2006
Battle of the Bands.
The attraction was instant, although
they knew nothing about each other.
Spring 2009
He didn’t mention that he had been
in real battles in Iraq, where no bands
played, where people died and where
his actions under fire made him the first
Oregon Army National Guard soldier
since World War II to earn the prestigious
Silver Star for gallantry. He also
left out the parts about his likeness being
made into an action figure, and him
being featured in the “America’s Army”
computer game, and the Army sending
him to teach combat skills to cadets at
West Point.
“I kept that stuff on the down-low,”
he recalls as the two of them eat lunch in
the familiar environs of Clod’s. “I didn’t
want it to affect things. I didn’t tell her
until a couple weeks later.”
“It was an interesting fact, something
to talk about,” she says, thinking back
to what she first told her friends about
her new sweetie. “You know: ‘I’m dating
this guy; he’s got an action figure;
he’s in a video game.’” (He also figures
prominently in The Devil’s Sandbox, John
R. Bruning’s book about Zedwick’s Oregon
Guard unit — the 2 nd Battalion of
the 162 nd Infantry — being deployed to
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Iraq during some of the bloodiest fighting
of the conflict.)
They also have in common the “vet”
thing. He, obviously, was already a
military vet, and was using his benefits
to take classes at Linn-Benton Community
College as he prepared to enroll as
a business major at OSU. She was on
her way to being the other kind of vet,
having earned a bachelor’s in animal
sciences from OSU in 2005 and won admission
to the OSU College of Veterinary
Medicine.
She had always loved animals. He
was willing to learn.
“What’s the scariest thing I’ve ever
done?” he says, wincing at the memory.
“That was when I told my girlfriend I
didn’t like her cat.”
“He likes her now,” Kristin
responds, making it clear that she and
the cat were a package deal.
She had always wanted to go to
OSU and become a vet. Matt had enlisted
in the Army Guard before he graduated
from Corvallis High School in 1998.
He doesn’t remember it being a difficult
decision.
“We had some family history in the
military,” he says. “It was a way to get
out and start my own life.”
The two are dedicated Beaver sports
fans, and both enjoy a wide variety of
outdoor activities, if with somewhat different
approaches.
“I’ve always ridden horses,” she
says. “When I taught Matt how to ride
horses, the first time, he shoots off ahead
of me, out of sight, and I can hear him
yelling, ‘How do you stop him?’”
He shrugs, as if to say, “Yeah, that’s me.”
“Actually, she’s the brave one,” he
says. “Like when she puts her arm inside
a horse to examine its prostate. No
thanks.”
Although he still craves excitement,
he is calming down and becoming more
forward thinking as he gets older. Proof
of his planning prowess was his proposal
to Kristin, which was a carefully
planned operation from start to finish.
First he asked her to go over
to the coast for some crabbing. She
had been thinking he might pop the
question, but crabbing didn’t sound
like the properly romantic setting, so
she figured this wouldn’t be the day.
Matt Zedwick’s Army buddies had some
fun when they learned that a toymaker was
making an action figure in Zedwick’s image.
Facing page: Kristin Zedwick, who will soon
graduate from OSU’s College of Veterinary
Medicine, works with a nervous llama. Photos
by Dennis Wolverton
Along the way they stopped at Seal Rock
State Park to let Tanner, her 170-pound
English mastiff, stretch his legs. Matt
suggested they climb around on the
nearby rocks and cliffs.
Tanner is blind. Being clever, Matt
knew Kristin would take Tanner back
to their truck before they did any cliff
climbing.
“A 170-pound blind dog and cliffs?
Not a good combination,” he says.
While Kristin was gone, Matt
grabbed a stranger and gave him his
camera to record the moment. As Kristin
returned back down the path toward
the beach, she saw Matt’s proposal written
in the sand. He waited nearby with a
diamond ring.
“Pretty romantic,” she says, as
he grins proudly at the memory of a
successful mission.
Matt continues serving in the Guard
as a staff sergeant, and is enrolled in
Army ROTC at Oregon State. Once he
earns his business degree and a commission
as a second lieutenant, he hopes to
continue his military service as a public
affairs officer.
“After 10 years in the infantry, I’m
transitioning from being a hands-on
type of guy,” he said. “Being married
and all, I’m trying to get out of combat
arms.”
Kristin is grateful for that. Having
met Army spouses who have lived
through combat deployments, she admires
them and thinks she could handle
it with their help, but she doesn’t relish
the thought.
Matt says he enjoys academics more
than he used to. He describes himself
as a good student who is getting better,
and notes that Kristin’s academic accomplishments
have helped him improve
STATER

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Matt and Kristin Zedwick reminisce at Clodfelter’s, the Monroe Street, campus-edge tavern where they met. Photo by Dennis Wolverton
that part of his life.
“I’m doing a lot better in my classes,”
he says. “I like accounting. It’s a lot of fun.”
Asked if he experiences any residual
emotional problems from his time in
combat, Matt says a person never gets
used to having close friends die so quickly
and violently.
“One minute they’re here and the
next minute they’re gone,” he says. “It’s
a void. It was kind of an issue for me
to go visit all of their graves, which I
haven’t done yet. When I think about it,
I think they would want me to be getting
on with my life. That’s what I would
want for them.”
One of his favorite things about military
life is the closeness among fellow
soldiers, even if some of them did have
a lot of fun with the news that Sgt. Zedwick
had become an action figure.
“They call it his doll,” Kristin says,
smiling.
“DESPITE BEING
WOUNDED AND UNDER
HEAVY SMALL ARMS
FIRE FROM THE
ENEMY, ZEDWICK
SAVED THE LIFE OF HIS
SQUAD LEADER WHEN
HE PULLED HIM FROM
A BURNING VEHICLE
AFTER THEY WERE
HIT WITH A ROADSIDE
BOMB.” — ARMY
ACCOUNT OF MATT
ZEDWICK’S HEROISM
“And I tell ’em, ‘It’s not a doll, it’s an
action figure,” he responds. “That stuff,
that and the medals, I kind of want to get
a treasure chest and put it in there, and
then get it out someday and show it to
my grandkids. You know, like, ‘This was
Grandpa.’”
If those grandkids do someday ask
Grandpa Matt how he earned his medals,
he’ll have a pretty good story to tell. Here’s
one official account of his actions on June
13, 2004, north of Camp Taji, Iraq:
“Despite being wounded and under
heavy small arms fire from the enemy, Zedwick
saved the life of his squad leader when
he pulled him from a burning vehicle after
they were hit with a roadside bomb. Zedwick
then sheltered the wounded soldier with his
own body when a second bomb exploded. After
carrying the soldier to safety, Zedwick
returned to the flaming vehicle through the
enemy’s assault and attempted to retrieve the
body of the gunner who was mortally wound-
STATER

ed. The Silver Star Medal is the third highest
award for gallantry among Army awards.”
At least 17 bullets or pieces of shrapnel
struck him that day; his body armor
stopped all but one, which punctured his
wrist and earned him a Purple Heart to
go with the Silver Star.
“I don’t think it’s hard to be brave in
a situation like that,” he says. “The guys
you’re with, it’s not like they’re your direct
family, but they are your brothers. I
was just helping out someone in need.”
He says the most memorable aspect
of receiving the medal came when Maj.
Gen. Peter Chiarelli pinned it on his chest.
Instead of having Zedwick give him the
customary salute that an enlisted man
owes an officer, Chiarelli instead raised
his hand to salute the sergeant.
“My father won the Silver Star in
World War II, and he was my hero,”
Chiarelli told Zedwick, who still gets a
bit teary-eyed at the recollection. “I am
so very honored to be in your presence. I
salute you.”
The medal led to the action figure,
which eventually led to a few minutes of
national fame on television.
In 2008, Howie Mandel’s “Deal or
No Deal” asked the Army for candidates
to compete on a special Christmas version
of the wildly popular game show.
Matt figured it didn’t hurt his chances
that he was newly married and had his
own action figure.
He, Kristin and several friends and
family members appeared on the show,
and he won $227,000.
“I was a little nervous,” he says.
“They give you lots of Red Bull while
you’re waiting. They want you to be real
extroverted.”
The two have socked away most of
the winnings, and continue to live in a
small apartment near campus. She will
be a veterinarian in June; they plan to stay
near Corvallis at least until he graduates,
probably in a couple years. Given the
way their lives have gone so far, they’re
not too worried about the future.
“We’re pretty lucky,” he says, looking
at her and smiling.
She returns the smile and nods.
“I think we’re blessed.” q
Spring 2009
Top: Zedwick was somber and quite moved as Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli pinned on his
Silver Star and then saluted the young soldier. Photo by Staff Sgt. Rebekah-mae Bruns
Below: The student-soldier was not so somber as he won $227,000 on a Christmas
edition of Howie Mandel’s “Deal or No Deal” television game show. Photo courtesy NBC
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