Cpt. Matt St. John, 31, is finally stateside for a Veterans Day after completing five deployments in almost 10 years with the Marine Corps.
The Eureka native, who has served as an infantry officer and is living in Dallas, said he is looking forward to the day before Veterans Day more than the federal holiday that honors U.S. military veterans.
“Actually, ironically enough, Veterans Day is on (Thursday, Nov. 11), and the Marine Corps’ birthday is on (Wednesday, Nov. 10),” he said. “I would say the (Nov. 10) is more of a celebratory holiday for me, and I think for most Marines.”
St. John said he hopes to share a meal with other veterans on Thursday.
“It’s a great way to link up with guys whom you served with and interact with some of the older generation of veterans,” he said.
St. John’s older sister, Julianne Lindsey, 34, of Eureka, said while her brother no longer lives in the area, she is excited for him to at least be in the U.S. for Veterans Day.
“Even though he’s in Dallas, it’s so much closer than he’s been,” she said. “It’s great to have him here.”
She said she is planning on celebrating the Marine Corps’ birthday and Veterans Day with her brother the next time he visits.
St. John, a 2008 Eureka High School graduate, said he decided to join the military after watching the events on 9/11.
“I was still pretty young,” he said. “Kind of hard to conceptualize things when you’re a sixth-grade boy, but I knew enough to understand what was about to transpire in 2001. It was really kind of the turning point for me as far as really driving home the decision to volunteer really as soon as I could.”
He said he remembers watching 9/11 happen on TV in a classroom at Wildwood Middle School. He also said he was drawn to military service because his father and both his grandfathers also served.
St. John said he joined the ROTC program at University of Missouri - Columbia in 2012, and he was drawn to the Marines because of coverage on the U.S. war on terror on TV.
“It always seemed like the Marines were in the thick of things and seemed like they always got the toughest tasks,” he said. “I figured that would be where the greatest challenge was.”
Lindsey said her family is proud of her brother.
“I don’t know if any of us thought he would stay in as long and become so highly ranked and looked up to by fellow Marines and just people in our community,” she said.
Deployments
St. John said his first deployment was for seven months starting in 2014 and ending in 2015. He was sent to Asia, Thailand and Okinawa, Japan.
In 2016, he was sent to Australia for seven months. He was then sent to Bahrain from January 2017 to January 2018, St. John said.
St. John’s fourth deployment was to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. He said he was there in the first half of 2018.
St. John said he did not come home between his third and fourth deployments.
“Having been away from home at that point for a number of years and you’re not able to see families frequently as you would like, you are kind of used to it in that regard,” he said. “Then you’re surrounded by other Marines who are about the same age with very similar interests. So, it’s not as bad as you would think, but you certainly get homesick at times.”
St. John said he left the Marines following the end of his fourth deployment and lived in Australia.
However, in July 2020, he was mobilized from the Reserves and was sent to the Republic of Georgia, which straddles Europe and Asia, from October 2020 through July.
St. John called his fifth deployment a “double-edged sword.”
“I certainly was enjoying the comforts of civilian life, having air conditioning and all the good stuff,” he said. “But I was excited to go with a really motivated Marine to do an adviser mission.”
St. John said while he enjoyed traveling the world, he’s glad to be back in the United States.
“I’m just reminded every time I come back how grateful I am to live in the United States, and I feel like I hit the lottery being born here,” he said.
During his deployments, St. John said he always had an odd request for his care packages.
“If you want to send me anything, just send me some floss picks,” he said.
His older sister, Caroline St. John, 36, is a dentist and helped him keep up his oral hygiene, he said.
Lindsey said when she mailed a package she always included candy, junk food, beef jerky sticks, homemade cookies, books, photos of the family and the floss picks.
“If you think about it (floss picks are) probably one thing they don’t have on hand anywhere he goes,” she said.
Coming home
St. John and his fiance, Elizabeth Suntrup, recently purchased a home in Eureka.
“The few places I would consider living on Earth, Missouri happened to be on my very short list,” he said.
St. John said Suntrup is from Town and Country and both wanted to live close to family; St. John’s parents live in Wildwood.
“I had to go all the way down to Texas to find a St. Louis girl,” he said.
The couple plans to be married in August 2022. St. John works for Ethicon Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson. He sells surgical equipment.