Matthew Balas was born and raised in Chesapeake, Virginia, one of the largest military towns in the country. He was 13 when he watched Black Hawk Down and knew the military was his calling. A conversation with a recruiter pointed him to the Marine Corps, and at 17, with his parents’ consent, he left for boot camp three days after graduating high school.
He became an 0352 and joined 1st Battalion, 9th Marines in December 2006, watching the newly formed unit grow into a combat battalion. In 2008 he deployed to Ramadi, Iraq, stationed at an Iraqi Police station with 11 other Marines, a few miles from where Jordan Haerter gave his life. A MEU deployment followed, taking him to Haiti after the earthquake and many other places.
After his enlistment he took on the University of Florida the way he took on Parris Island, refusing to quit when the work got hard. He found the brotherhood he missed on the rugby pitch, playing three years in Gainesville, then earned his Master’s in Accounting and his CPA. For the past 11 years he has consulted on accounting software for a large accounting firm, and he brings that same drive to helping 1/9 Association grow.