Lombard soldier returns to civilian life this Veterans Day
Editor’s note: Army Lt. Matt Spartz, a lifelong Lombard resident, served a one-year tour that ended in May with the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan. From there, he provided reports for the Daily Herald on topics ranging from his own wounding to our troops’ reaction to the killing of Osama bin Laden. His final day on active duty is Saturday. Spartz is a 2008 journalism graduate of the University of Illinois.
Last Veterans Day my hands were shaky. I sat in the concrete …

Editor’s note: Army Lt. Matt Spartz, a lifelong Lombard resident, was deployed to Afghanistan a year ago with the 101st Airborne Division. A 2008 journalism graduate of University of Illinois, he is submitting occasional reports for the Daily Herald.
Last week, six more soldiers were killed in one of our deployment’s hardest battles.

This week, the government looks set on losing a battle with compromise, probably resulting in a freeze of government — and in turn, military — paychecks.
Imagine telling our boys before last week that …

Editor’s note: Army Lt. Matt Spartz, a lifelong Lombard resident, was deployed to Afghanistan in May with the 101st Airborne Division. A 2008 journalism graduate of University of Illinois, he is submitting occasional reports for the Daily Herald.
For some time I have thought if I were writing something, it should be worth reading. During the past few months I hadn’t written much, and in fleeting moments I simply figured I didn’t have anything left worth reading. I also had a shadowy fear that I …

Matt Spartz couldn’t attend his grandfather’s funeral in person, but Lombard soldier serving in Afghanistan found a way to pay his respects
By 1st Lt. Matt Spartz
Editor’s note: Army Lt. Matt Spartz, a lifelong Lombard resident, was deployed to Afghanistan in May with the 101st Airborne Division. A 2008 journalism graduate of University of Illinois, he is submitting occasional reports for the Daily Herald.
When I was a boy, I loved watching my grandpa, John Spartz, lead his VFW post during the Memorial Day parade in …

Editor’s note: Lt. Matthew Spartz, a lifelong Lombard resident, has been writing columns for the Daily Herald since his deployment to Afghanistan. Last week, he was wounded in a battle that claimed the lives of six American troops. He shares the details of that fight in the Pech Valley.
I faced my greatest fear in the sky-scraping mountains of the Pech Valley’s Taliban training havens, and now that fear no longer scares me.
My greatest fear was not death. I’ve been incrementally inoculated from the …

Editor’s note: Army Lt. Matt Spartz, a lifelong Lombard resident, was deployed to Afghanistan in May with the 101st Airborne Division. A 2008 journalism graduate of University of Illinois, he is submitting occasional reports for the Daily Herald.Walking out the gate of an outpost for the first time is what I imagine an inmate feels like during his first steps outside of prison; a more literal translation may paint the American outpost more like freedom and the war zone I walked into as more like the prison. But my first …