“I broke out of the friend zone like Shawshank. Pressure and time.”

That’s how Matt Meyers describes the ten-year journey from high school classmate to husband with Nicole. What started as a casual jogging invitation at Senior Snake—despite jogging being “the last thing” Matt wanted to do—evolved into a friendship that survived Matt attending Virginia Military Institute and eventually deploying to Baghdad in 2003.

Everything changed during that deployment. When Matt could reach a phone from Iraq, Nicole was the person he called. She sent care packages with jazz CDs and The Thomas Crown Affair on DVD—gifts that showed she truly understood him. Nicole’s parents would watch CNN immediately after their phone calls ended, seeing events unfold in the Green Zone where Matt was stationed just seconds after hanging up. After fifteen months in Iraq, Matt returned home to find Nicole and her entire family at the airport, thanks to his matchmaker mother.

They spent thirty intense days together during his block leave, then committed to making a long-distance relationship work with Matt stationed in Germany. Nicole bravely joined him, but the reality was brutal. Isolated in a foreign country where she didn’t speak the language, with a workaholic husband frequently absent for training, Nicole reached her breaking point. “I’m ready to go back with my mom,” she told him.

Matt’s solution? An expensive Magellan GPS (the giant Betamax-sized kind from Costco) so she could explore without getting lost, and a Jack Russell terrier puppy named Beatrice. “My marriage was saved by a GPS and a Jack Russell terrier,” Matt jokes. Nicole eventually found her community through equestrian activities at a local barn, connecting with other army wives and German nationals, and fell in love with Germany.

Their unconventional courtship included spontaneous European adventures—arriving in Paris at 10 PM during fashion week without hotel reservations, then wandering the streets for hours with their luggage searching for a room. “We didn’t kill each other after that,” Matt laughs, “so we knew we could travel together.”

Six months after Kuwait, they got engaged. Six months later, they married. Three weeks after the wedding, Matt left for training. The army life’s harsh realities had arrived.

Matt deployed to Afghanistan for a year as part of a police mentorship team he describes as “the Bad News Bears,” mentoring Afghan border police across western Afghanistan. Through unexpected circumstances, he became the intelligence officer for western Afghanistan—an infantry officer with zero intelligence training. “I wasn’t a cool guy, but I got to see their tree house one time,” he says about working alongside special operations. “It was how the other half lives.”

During mid-tour leave, Nicole became pregnant. Matt returned home just before Christmas, secured a job at Fort Lewis, and started building the stable family life they’d never had. Then came the chiropractor appointment.

Nicole noticed his neck was dramatically swollen. Two ER doctors dismissed it as a bad bruise. An endocrinologist recommended a biopsy. At Madigan Army Hospital, an unprepared Air Force second lieutenant walked in with a clipboard: “They told you you got cancer and everything, right?” There was frantic page-flipping. “Oh, I wasn’t the one who was supposed to tell you.”

Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Two goose egg-sized masses in his neck. Cancer throughout his torso, nearly reaching his lungs. All the warning signs—weight fluctuations, night sweats, itching, shortness of breath—had been perfectly explained away by his Afghanistan deployment. At 28 years old, with a wife he’d barely lived with and a newborn son named Jack, Matt faced months of chemotherapy and radiation.

The treatment was devastating. Matt gained massive weight from steroids, hoping to “lose weight on this gig” but instead “blowing up like the Blueberry girl from Willy Wonka.” Nicole cared for a returning soldier, new baby, and cancer patient simultaneously—earning, in Matt’s words, “mother of the millennia honors a thousand times over.”

This is a story about love tested by distance, deployment, and disease—and somehow surviving it all.

About Matt Meyers
Matthew Meyers is the Chief Executive Officer of B.E. Meyers & Co., Inc. headquartered Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1974, B.E. Meyers & Co., Inc. remains a leader in the field of visible and infrared laser technology (photonics), optics, and systems integration for the Aerospace and Defense industries. As a shareholder in this family-held firm, Mr. Meyers acts as the Family Representative to the Board of Advisors, and facilitates the corporate strategic planning process.

Previously, Mr. Meyers served as the Director of Marketing and Business Development for B.E. Meyers & Co. Inc., revitalizing the family brand by implementing a campaign of aggressive new product development efforts, re-focused customer engagement, as well as new marketing methods and media styles to address an ever-evolving landscape of military and law enforcement end-users, program offices, and government entities.

As a Product Manager, prior to his term as Director of Marketing and Business Development, Mr. Meyers was involved in the company’s DoD Programs of Record and development efforts with the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC-Crane), PEO Soldier, PEO Sensors and Lasers, PEO Crew Served Weapons, and the USN Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) along with a variety of Original Equipment Manufacturers. The scope of these development efforts ranged from Crew-Served Weapon lasers, to integrated photonics packages for rotary wing aircraft and UAVs, and into leading technologies such as Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR), Mid Wave Infrared (MWIR) and Long Wave Infrared (LWIR) lasers and sensors for battlefield observation, targeting, and communication.

Prior to working at B.E. Meyers & Co., Inc., Mr. Meyers was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry after graduating from the Virginia Military Institute in 2001. His first assignment was with the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division located in Baumholder, Germany. In 2003 he was deployed to Baghdad and Iskandariyah, Iraq for 15 months in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His second deployment was to Camp Buehring, Kuwait for six months between 2005 and 2006, which was also in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Now a Captain, Mr. Meyers served in positions as a Mechanized Infantry Rifle Platoon Leader, Iraqi Civil Defense Corps Battalion US Officer-in-Charge, Mechanized Infantry Company Executive Officer, Support Platoon Leader, and Chief of Logistics (S4).

Following these duties Captain Meyers was assigned to an Embedded Training Team for 12 months between 2007 and 2008 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Herat, Afghanistan. There he was tasked to operate alongside Afghan Police and Army units as part of the Afghanistan Regional Security Integration Command (ARSIC-West). Captain Meyers later served as the Operations Officer of the Border Police Mentor Team, as the Executive Officer of the Delaram Afghan Police Mentor Team, as the Future Plans Officer for ARSIC West, and finally, as the ARSIC-West Chief of Intelligence (S2) conducting operations throughout western Afghanistan.

Mr. Meyers holds a Bachelors of Arts Degree in International Studies from the Virginia Military Institute. Originally from Issaquah, WA, he is married to the former Nicolle Burke of Bellevue, WA, and has two children, Jack and Lillian. When not running B.E. Meyers & Co., Inc. Mr. Meyers enjoys shooting, hiking, and foreign travel.

Links:

• Website – www.bemeyers.com
• Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/matt.meyers.bemeyers/

About Tracy Crowley
Tracy Crowley has always been an entrepreneur. Whether it was making gowns for fellow Army wives, taking portraits in black and white, or working on her other businesses, she is always learning something new.

That passion for learning something new and giving something back collide nicely in this podcast.

Join Tracy for Good Life Stories, where simple curiosity brings out great stories, every single time.

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