US Air Force Col. Rick Matton: A man who mattered to Filipinos
PeopleAsia magazine had a very successful staging of its 2014 “Men Who Matter” awards at the New World Makati to honor men whose achievements and accomplishments in their respective fields serve as a great example to others.
He may not have been an awardee of PeopleAsia’s “Men Who Matter” but one man who certainly mattered to many Filipinos is our friend, Col. Richard “Rick” Matton. After 27 years, he ended his distinguished career at the United States Air Force. He was recently feted during official retirement ceremonies at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City. Col. Matton leaves the service as the Air Attaché for the Defense Attaché office of the US Embassy. He could have held the retirement ceremony in the United States, but Rick chose to do it here in the Philippines because this country and most especially the people have taken a special place deep in the heart of this American colonel.
When typhoon Yolanda hit Tacloban and other parts of Central Visayas in November last year, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez’s call to Colonel Matton for US help set into motion the eventual deployment of the USS George Washington, which at the time was fortunately docked at the Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong. The speedy response from the Americans, the massive airlift operations to get to the hard-to-reach barangays with US Osprey aircraft dropping relief goods made all the difference between life and death for many of the survivors.
Along with US Ambassador Philip Goldberg, Col. Rocky Carter (who assumed duties as Senior Defense Attaché and chief of the Joint US Military Assistance Group or JUSMAG-Philippines in 2012) arranged for the retirement ceremony in honor of Colonel Matton, who was presented with certificates of appreciation from the US Armed Forces and President Barack Obama no less.
Nancy, Colonel Matton’s lovely wife of 22 years, and their twin daughters Sophia and Claire along with their six-year-old son Calvin were obviously so proud of the accomplishments of Rick, who was commissioned through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program in 1987, earning his pilot wings at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas. The most heartwarming part of the ceremonial event, however, came when Colonel Matton presented his little boy with a Lego toy airplane — Calvin said he wants to follow after the footsteps of the colonel and be a pilot someday like his father.
Photos by Ramon Joseph J. Ruiz
