Tacoma war widow grateful for mortgage payoff. We’re grateful to her and her husband
Alex McClintock’s home in Tacoma’s Proctor neighborhood has become her place of sure refuge five years after her husband, Matt, was killed in Afghanistan.
It’s the place where she’s studied and Zoomed in for her University of Washington Tacoma classes these past 14-plus pandemic-plagued months, en route to obtaining a psychology degree in June.
It’s the place where she’s raising her son Declan, age 6 — the jumping-off point for their many weekly appointments for his severe autism, for their visits to the 1st Special Forces Group memorial wall at JBLM and for their regular walks in the neighborhood.
“Living in Tacoma is awesome,” Alex told the TNT’s opinion editor Friday. “I find a new flower every day; there’s always a new turn to take.”
And thanks to a national foundation that recently paid off Alex’s mortgage, the 100-year-old craftsman house now belongs to her, free and clear.
Regardless of any dollar figures on a loan document, however, the property holds priceless value to the war widow for one bedrock reason: “Matt picked this home.”
Sadly, he only got to live in it for a year, off and on between Army training exercises and deployments, before his death at age 30 on Jan. 5, 2016.
Sgt. 1st Class Matthew McClintock was killed in action during a period of intense Taliban insurgency. The veteran Green Beret, who went to Southern Afghanistan with the Washington National Guard’s 19th Special Forces Group, was trying to secure a helicopter landing zone to evacuate a badly wounded member of his team.
For his valor, he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest combat medal, and laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
McClintock epitomizes our country’s deepest ideals. This Memorial Day, he represents far too many who made the ultimate sacrifice, before and since he died.
But his wife’s journey these past five years should force Americans to confront the other 364 days a year. What are we willing to sacrifice to help surviving family members become as whole again as possible?
“Declan grew up without his dad; it’s been hard to make ends meet,” Alex said. “There were times we thought we were going to lose the house and we didn’t know what to do and there was nobody to stand up for us.”
Her outlook improved when she was contacted by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. The 20-year-old organization, born in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, pays off home loans on behalf of families of fallen first responders and military veterans.
Since starting its Gold Star Family Home program in 2018, Tunnel to Towers has delivered five mortgage-free homes in Washington, a spokesman told us, including three in Pierce County: the families of Army Ranger Sgt. Thomas R. MacPherson (Puyallup), Sgt. Cameron Meddock (Tacoma) and McClintock.
Overall, the organization announced the payoff of 20 homes in 11 states ahead of Memorial Day.
Alex McClintock is profoundly grateful to own one of them.
On this holiday weekend, she doesn’t have strong feelings about geopolitical issues or President Biden’s deadline to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. “My husband left Afghanistan five years ago,” she said, hopeful that he made a difference for ordinary people there, especially children.
Mostly, she wants Matt to be seen as more than a soldier, even though he loved his job, and to be remembered as more than an avatar for Memorial Day sorrow.
“He was the guy who quoted ‘Star Wars’ to me at a metal show. He was the one who laughed until he couldn’t make a sound. He was a real person.”
So let’s have a moment of silence, this weekend and beyond, to honor America’s heroes in all their complexity. And let’s go out of our way to support organizations that help their loved ones survive, thrive and find a new flower every day.
TUNNEL TO TOWERS
To learn more, go online to t2t.org
News Tribune editorials reflect the views of our Editorial Board and are written by opinion editor Matt Misterek. Other board members are: Stephanie Pedersen, News Tribune president and editor; Matt Driscoll, local columnist; and Jim Walton, community representative. The Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom and does not influence the work of news reporting and editing staffs. For questions about the board or our editorials, email matt.misterek@thenewstribune.com