SFC Matthew Kreiger Is This Week’s Hometown Hero!

It’s time once again for our Hometown Hero, brought to you by Batavia Downs Gaming with help from our friends at WNY Heroes who help us with our nominations every week.  This week, our Hometown Hero from Angola, NY is Army Sergeant First Class Matthew Kreiger!

Matt graduated from Lakeshore Senior High School in 2003 and joined Active Duty Army in 2004. He is a Special Forces Green Beret with 3^rd Special Forces Group based out of Fort Bragg, NC.  SFC Kreiger has completed tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan fighting the Global War on Terrorism.

On August 8, 2011, Kreiger and his 12 man team of Green Berets were conducting combat operations in Afghanistan, when they encountered resistance from Taliban forces. After heavy gunfire erupted, SFC Kreiger and members of his team maneuvered to flank the Taliban forces. During the firefight, he was shot in the head by an enemy sniper on a nearby ridgeline. Though the round entered his right temple region and went through the entire right half of his brain, Kreiger got back up to his feet and continued to maneuver on the enemy until finally linking up with his team medic where he was later stabilized and MEDEVAC’d out to safety.

Kreiger endured over a year of extensive rehabilitation before finally being declared fit for duty again. Today, Kreiger still serves and is a Tactical Mobility Operations Instructor where he teaches Green Beret teams and prepares them through training for upcoming deployments. He resides just outside of Fort Bragg, NC with his wife and 4 children ages 10, 8, 2 and 7mos.

This week, we are grateful to have people like Matt on our team fighting for our country.  This week, we are proud to name him our Hometown Hero of the week! If you’re headed out to the Bills game tomorrow, look for him to be honored there as well.

If you would like to nominate your own Hometown Hero, click the button below. We like to honor both active duty and veteran heroes from right here in Western New York.

Thanks once again to Sergeant First Class Matthew Kreiger from the United States Army, our Hometown Hero of the week!