Many people know Matthew Cothron as "Uncle Chaps," who co-hosts the program Zero Blog Thirty with Kate Mannion for Barstool Sports. While he is a proud former Marine (aren't they all) fewer know his full backstory as a K9 handler who served in Iraq and saw some heavy combat around Fallujah.
In a recent interview, Cothron discussed how he saw himself becoming a pastor after he finished his schooling, but felt that as a pastor giving advice to people he needed some real-life experience.
This led him to join the Marine Corps and eventually become a K9 handler. Interestingly, in the Marine Corps' K9 program their dogs were trained to be both bomb-sniffing dogs as well as attack dogs.
When another K9 handler was tragically killed, Cothron suddenly found himself supporting a recon unit in fierce combat outside Fallujah.
"The first firefight I was in, I remember thinking I probably should have listened to my mom," he said. "This was a bad idea. I just wanted a little taste of real-life and this was more than I had bargained for."
Cothron was honest about being scared at the time and not yet being familiar with the tactics used by the Recon Marines, who turned out to be dialed in and knew what they were doing when rounds started flying. The Platoon Sergeant told Cothron to get up on the roof and help fight, which he did. Fighting alongside the Recon Marines gave him the confidence he needed at the time, he recalled.
As the deployment went on, his dog found some massive IEDs that helped save the life of Marines including car bombs and a large explosive device that was suspected to have been a Chlorine gas bomb. When the Air Force dropped a 500 bomb on it, the detonation blew out all the windows in the building they had taken refuge in and gave his dog a minor concussion.
One night while the platoon was bedded down in an abandoned house, they came under attack. Cothron stood up just in time to get shot through the forearm. Once he was evacuated, his dog would not let anyone near him.
"My surgery was delayed because I had to wait for another handler to come get him because the only place I could tie him was to the bed," Cothron said.
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After Iraq, his career in the Marines took off and he was promoted to Staff Sergeant. However, "I was battling demons," he said after his experiences in Iraq and his marriage falling apart.
"I didn't get the help that I needed and I ended up assaulting a police officer in San Antonio," Cothron said. When he woke up in a jail cell he figured he got a DUI and had no recollection of the assault.
Prosecutors and the Marine Corps allowed Cothron to be processed out for medical retirement, but then he had to serve his 45 days in county jail. After, he started going to school as well as going to therapy and working to put his life back together. Like many veterans, he was not fulfilled in civilian life and there was no way he could become a pastor or a K9 contractor as a convicted felon.
Cothron then took to writing, tweeting as Chaps about sports, and started a podcast, "in my closet, talking into a shoebox with a lapel mic."
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Eventually, he got was hired by Barstool Sports and announced his new job on his alive day: the anniversary of the day he was wounded in combat.
"Getting shot, and being arrested, has allowed me to be the person I am today," Cothron said.
Today he takes to the airwaves on Zero Blog Thirty with Mannion making dick jokes while also advocating for mental health care for veterans and family members.
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Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.
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