Catholic High junior sets goals on life of service

Matthew Kolb already knows he wants to dedicate life after high school to the Army, learning about explosives

Published: April 28, 2012

By Dwain Hebda
Little Rock Correspondent

Dwain Hebda

Even though Matthew Kolb has one more year of high school, the Catholic High School student already has big plans following graduation.

Dwain Hebda

Even though Matthew Kolb has one more year of high school, the Catholic High School student already has big plans following graduation.

As any parent of one will tell you, there may be nothing in the world more fearless than a certain breed of teenage boy. Durable, curious of all things loud, fast and gravity-defying and emboldened by a particular brand of perceived immortality, these youngsters revel in the assorted bumps, bruises and sometimes broken bones they collect as much as the times they walk away without a scratch. Their unofficial motto: pain is temporary, girls love scars.

Despite what he intends to do with his life, 16-year-old Matthew Kolb is not one of these boys.

"I don't know if I'd consider myself a risk-taker," he said in a voice quiet as a library. "I don't mind getting hurt, but I know my family doesn't want me to get hurt and I don't want them to suffer over me."

A future accountant, you think, or an engineer sits before you in his starched shirt and requisite Catholic High School conservative haircut. Barely 6 feet tall and maybe weighing 135 pounds when soaking wet and competing for the Little Rock Dolphins swim team, you picture a quiet, safe journey through adulthood.

Kolb is not one of those boys, either. What he is, is a patriot. The kind of patriot who stands in the face of threats to his country and his family as a human line in the sand. The kind who doesn't know if he could kill another person, but who would spare nothing of himself to see to it they did not harm anyone else.

"I remember when 9/11 hit. I remember seeing it on television and I grew up wanting to be a soldier," he said of his memories when he was 5 years old. "My dad and I really started talking about it when I was a sophomore and lately God's been giving me signs as guidance for what to do. I guess you could say it's my calling."

He originally wanted to be in the infantry, but later refined that goal to joining the Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit of Army Special Operations. After his initial 11 weeks of basic training following graduation from Catholic High in 2013, Kolb will undergo a year of Advanced Individual Training to learn his special area of expertise.

According to its recruiting website, EOD's purpose is to locate, identify, evaluate, render safe, recover and dispose both surface and underwater high explosive, improvised devices and unexploded ordnance including chemical, biological, radiological nuclear and enhanced high explosive devices.

Kolb's description of this career move is more succinct.

"A patrol out on the road in Afghanistan comes up on an improvised explosive device," he said. "EOD blows it up. The ultimate goal is to prevent deaths."

EOD technicians are also linked to the U.S. Secret Service doing advance security prep work for presidential and vice presidential visits. Homeland security and terrorism are other obvious theaters of operation. Security clearance is top secret level and technicians can be deployed anywhere on the globe a threat happens. Though he has little control over his deployment once trained, Kolb said he would like to see Afghanistan and Japan during his military career.

EOD training is voluntary; in fact, Kolb chose the Army specifically because it gives soldiers the chance to go into any specialty field they choose. If you're wondering how a person as young as Kolb can so resolutely pursue a path that puts him in harm's way, he said he doesn't view himself as particularly courageous, just committed. Like all new recruits, he doesn't know exactly what to expect but the glimpses he has had of military life hit a familiar chord with him.

"You have to go here to understand it, but there's a brotherhood that exists at Catholic High," he said. "It's more than a school and I didn't really get that until (University of Arkansas freshman football player and CHS alum) Garrett Uekman died and I saw how the school reacted to it. It appears to be the same thing in the military."

Kolb also sees nobility in serving others, something else that hits close to home. His father, James, is former military and a firefighter. Several of his extended family members have military backgrounds, including his cousin currently serving in the Marines. For Kolb, who attends the Cathedral of St. Andrew with his family, this servant mentality is the very embodiment of faith.

"There are certain moments when you realize that it's not just about me, that there's something else out there," he said. "My good friends support me in this and others are skeptical, but those who doubt me don't know me very well."

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