J. Matthew Lissner

Interview of J. Matthew Lissner for the Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Digital Library. Lissner discusses his time in the United States Army and in the Army Reserves.

Transcript:

J. Matthew Lissner Army Interview

Tom Gehman: [00:00:00] I'm Tom Gehman. I'm from Troop 171. Nice to meet you. And would you introduce yourself, please?

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:00:09] Yeah. My name is J. Matthew Lissner. I'm a retired colonel from the United States Army.

Tom Gehman: [00:00:16] Great. So when did you join the military and why did you join?

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:00:25] I joined the military, January 7th of 1988. I joined because I got to a point in my life where I had to kind of make a decision. I had been out of school for a while and I was working and teaching and coaching, and I kind of had a choice whether to go pursue my PhD or join the military; because at that time, the oldest age you could join was 30, and that's how old I was.

Tom Gehman: [00:00:59] Ok, interesting. So where did you serve, and which wars if any?

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:01:07] I served eight years in active duty, and during that time we were in Operation Just Cause, which was down in Panama. I left active duty and then went into the National Guard like traditional M-Day in the Arkansas National Guard. I did that for three years and then I got into the Army Reserve as an AGR, which is active Guard Reserve, so I was basically on active duty for 20 more years before I retired.

Tom Gehman: [00:01:44] Wow. So what kind of experiences did you have? Like any you enjoyed, or didn't enjoy, favorites?

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:01:52] Well, you know, there's always some some loss. You have soldiers that get killed or get injured really badly, sometimes in training. More often than not during the conflicts we've had for the last 20 years. But overall, it was if I could still be in, I'd still be in. If I could do it all over again, I would do it all over again. The people I met, the places that I've been, the experiences that I've learned from both good and bad. I just don't know if they could be replaced any other way than by doing that.

Tom Gehman: [00:02:32] Yeah. So you don't have any regrets? You would totally do it again.

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:02:37] Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Tom Gehman: [00:02:39] Great. So any specific stories that you'd like to share or favorite places?

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:02:48] Let's see so. My first duty assignment was at Fort Ord in California, which is right on the Monterey Bay. And I thought that was the most fantastic location of the places that I have been stationed so far. I mean, it was so it was close to the mountains, it was on the ocean, the weather. I mean, it was really, really a great place to be stationed, and it was a great unit. You know, some of the odd occasions where in the middle of combat, where passage of lines between two units and one unit's radio operator with his boss sat down next to me to give me some information, and it was a guy that I hadn't seen since middle school.

Tom Gehman: [00:03:38] Wow.

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:03:39] And we had about 30 seconds to say hi, how are you? Well, good luck. And I hadn't seen him or talked to him since. That was kind of an unusual experience. I've gotten an opportunity to fly an airplane. I got an opportunity to pilot a hovercraft.

Tom Gehman: [00:04:00] Wow.

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:04:00] So you know just things like that, I mean I've got way way more good experiences than bad experiences.

Tom Gehman: [00:04:09] Yeah, that sounds interesting. So how do you think your service impacted like the country, the world?

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:04:19] Oh, my service individually, I'm not sure if it impacted the nation or the world very much, but I would say during the time that I was serving in the Army, there's always been conflicts. There's always going to be conflicts. And we even in times where there's not a lot of funding, even times where we have a lot of difficulty recruiting our military, our army gets out there and gets the job done because it's still a volunteer force. So people, maybe not as many as we should have or would like to have, but there's still a lot of people volunteering to do those jobs. And that kind of makes me proud to be part of that.

Tom Gehman: [00:05:06] Yeah, for sure. So what advice do you have for the younger generation, though, based on your experience and just general life?

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:05:17] I would, I'm kind of one of those people that I could probably if they decide to bring the draft back, I probably wouldn't be too opposed to that. I think, I've always thought that, you know, all of us Americans should spend some time in service to the, you know, the nation, whether it's maybe in the political realm or military or, you know, but, you know, it could be firefighters, something to the community like that. I would ask the youth to look at the different services, look at the different components, meaning whether that's the active duty guys, the National Guard guys or the reserve components, because a lot of people that I've worked with in the Reserve components are just as qualified, just as experienced, just as smart as some of the folks I've met on active duty. And they get a whole other world of experience in their civilian jobs. It's not the easiest life, but a lot of people have done very very well at it, and they have served serve the nation well by doing that. So, if you want to serve, there's a way to do it. There certainly is.

Tom Gehman: [00:06:39] Yeah. So do you still see the impacts of your service? Like, throughout your life? Like the benefits of it?

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:06:49] You mean for me personally?

Tom Gehman: [00:06:50] Yeah, for you personally.

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:06:51] Oh, no, absolutely. You know, I've had a lot of surgeries on my body, so I'm not what I used to be. But, you know, the physical fitness, the state of physical fitness I was in partly due to requirement, partly due to that's what I wanted to do. That arena of health and physical fitness was good. The experiences that I've had in different leadership positions and learning from other leaders, you get to see such a vast number and gradient of good leaders in the military that, you know, sometimes you get in a job, whatever it is, and you have a small circle of people that you, you know, you might work 20 years with and you only get to meet a handful of people in the military. You get to meet all kinds. So you get to get to see role models. You get the chance to be a role model. I like the fact that we're always going to school for something. I mean, we're always we're always learning there. We're always going to some school, whether it's a technical school, an admin school, a weapon school, something. There's never a lack, for if you're thirsty for and hungry for education and knowledge, you're going to get it.

Tom Gehman: [00:08:17] Interesting. Yeah. So otherwise, are you still tied to the military, would you say, or participating in, say, Cumberland County?

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:08:30] Yeah, that's an interesting question. I mean, I retired five years ago. I taught ROTC as a contractor for three years, so I was definitely still tied to the military like that. I have a son who is in ROTC, and I was just nominated and accepted as an Army Reserve ambassador. So now I'm going to be greatly tied back into at least the Army Reserve, but the Army in general, looking at recruiting, looking at how we can help service members and their families, and particularly to educate people about how the Army Reserve works, compared to the active and the National Guard.

Tom Gehman: [00:09:18] Yeah. Cool. So is there anything else you'd like to add? Like any. Anything else you'd like to share?

J. Matthew Lissner: [00:09:29] Well, I'd like to share, as I said earlier, I didn't come in the Army until I was 30. Even both my parents had been both World War Two and Korean vets. They encouraged me, they didn't shove it down my throat, they encouraged me, you know, and it kind of took a while. But, you know, I didn't do it, you know, because, oh, you know, I wanted to get student loans paid off, which is a is a thing. I didn't do it because I needed a job, I was working. I did it because that's what it took me to feel that, you know, that patriotic desire, you know, since my parents had done it, I just when I was younger, I didn't want to do that, it just didn't hit me that way. And when I got older, I said, you know, that is something. I had no idea how long I would stay in. I ended up staying in for 29 years. So I would say don't ever completely say no I'll never do it. That's what I would say to people of just about any age. I don't know what the max age is now, but I'm sure it's at least 30. But you know, whether you go in for a short tour as enlisted or do part active duty and then get back in the Reserve or the Guard, a lot of people have done it that way and they continue to serve or some you just serve their initial tours and then they're done with it. But at least they've they've gotten that opportunity and I think everybody I've ever talked to said they absolutely got a lot out of it. And many people say I wish I hadn't gotten out when I did.

Tom Gehman: [00:11:11] Yeah. Well, that's all I have. So I'd like to say thank you again so much for this interview. And thank you for your service, sir.