Matt is a novelist, a retired US Army Special Forces officer, a husband, a father, a son, and a brother to many. He is a combat veteran with multiple deployments to three different combat zones. This includes a deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the former Yugoslavia, where he led numerous patrols in and around the Tuzla Valley and the Majevitsa mountain range, which is the setting for his first novel, Deep in the Place of the Dead.