Lake City High School grad prepares for battlefield
Matt Angelo, a criminology and business major from Coeur d’Alene, jumped out of airplanes as an Army ROTC cadet and is preparing for a stint as a field artillery officer after graduation.
Rio Spiering, University Visual Productions
Matt Angelo of Coeur d'Alene is preparing for a stint as a field artillery officer after graduating from the University of Idaho.
In high school, Matt Angelo had dreams of continuing his family’s military history and jumping out of airplanes.
Instead of immediately enlisting in the military to chase that goal, he enrolled in college to attain it.
Angelo, a senior majoring in criminology with a minors in business and military science, joined University of Idaho with an Army ROTC scholarship which pays his tuition. After graduating in Spring ’24, he will travel to Fort Sill Oklahoma as a U.S. Army 2nd Lieutenant for a five-month training program to learn his new job as a field artillery officer. He’ll spend the next five years leading a field artillery unit whose purpose is to use cannons, rockets and missiles to neutralize enemy forces and add fire support to a battlefield.
“I will be employed as soon as I leave U of I,” Angelo said. “Being guaranteed a job right out of college is one of the things that drew me to University of Idaho’s ROTC program.”
At first, though, there were hurdles.
The biggest one: Angelo questioned his decision.