Lieutenant Matt Zemke

Character Information

Gender		Male
Age		32

Physical Appearance

Height		5'9"
Weight		175
Hair Color		Brown
Eye Color		Brown
Physical Description		Stocky but athletic build, rambling walk from years wearing Western boots as a child and teenager. Has slight Texas drawl

Family

Spouse		None
Children		None
Father		Michael Curtis Zemke
Mother		Lucia Cayetana Moya Zemke
Brother(s)		None
Sister(s)		Felicia Rebeca, 24

Personality & Traits

General Overview		Matt has always been inquisitive about the world around him. However, several childhood mishaps left him with a healthy respect for the environment as well. His piloting experience taught him the value of multitasking and he is usually seen doing multiple tasks at once.
Strengths & Weaknesses		S: Seeing the value or anyone or anything W: Not being able to compartmentalize and emotionally detach
Ambitions		To be an Aviation Batallion Commander
Hobbies & Interests		Matt likes most all outdoor activities but he also enjoys a good police procedural novel

Personal History

History: Matthew grew up in and around Midland, Texas. His father was a Company Man for an oil company, and his mother managed the county land offices. Matt was attracted to flying early on, but helicopters held a special fascination for the young man. In his teenage years, Matt worked at the local municipal airport, where the oil company kept its fleet of aircraft. He swept hangars, toted luggage, cleaned aircraft…anything to be near the airport and its charges. Eventually, he got in good with the corporate pilots and began accruing bootleg hours flying. The corporate pilots agreed: Matt was a rare individual - a natural flyer. After an Army recruiter’s pitch at school, Matt decided he wanted to fly for the Army. But his father was hurt on the job and had to take medical retirement from the oil company. Matt could no longer access the oil company’s pilots and tutelage. Instead, Matt devised another plan: he would become a helicopter crew chief, get in good with a pilot, and get bootleg hours that way. He would then get his civilian certifications, and when the time came, Matt would apply to Officer Candidate School to make the process legitimate. Matt completed Basic and Advanced Individual Training and became a 15U, a Chinook Helicopter Aircrew Member. His first duty station was with the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Aviation Regiment, stationed at Camp Humphreys, South Korea. During this deployment, Matt served as crew chief on aircraft 0-01787, nicknamed “Old Hag.” Matt learned the ins and outs of the Chinook on “Old Hag” and became adept at finding unorthodox fixes because of the operational environment. The biggest issue of this otherwise uneventful deployment was a border incident in which confused DPRK soldiers opened fire on Old Hag. The aircraft sustained enough damage that the pilot set her down while still taking small-arms fire from the DPRK soldiers. Once on the ground, the crew bailed out of Old Hag and took defensive positions nearby. Matt and his crew then held off DPRK patrols for 36 hours while the respective governments sorted out the incident. After Korea, Matt was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, for a rotation through Poland. It was at this time that Matt began to get flight hours. He was assigned to aircraft 0-02555, nicknamed “Triple Nickel.” Matt’s pilot gave him all the hours Matt could get; in exchange, the pilot never had to worry about maintenance issues or fixes on Triple Nickel. When the time was right, newly promoted Sergeant Matt Zemke applied for and was accepted to the Basic Officer’s Course at Fort Benning, GA. Matt kept his head down and finished the 12-week course, graduating as a 2nd Lieutenant. He then attended Basic Rotary Wing Flight Training at Fort Rucker, Alabama. During a test hop one day, Matt had to come clean about his previous experience. The training aircraft malfunctioned, and Matt knew exactly what to do and did it without the instructor's prompting. Once on the ground, the instructor quietly confronted Matt, and Matt owned up to his 200-plus hours of flight time. From then on, the instructors gave Matt more complex problems and pushed his knowledge to the breaking point. In the final days of Flight School, it looked like Matt would come down on orders to return to South Korea. He was finishing up a cross-country certification flight in a new MH-47E when Skynet launched its attack on humanity. Their course from Fort Rucker, Alabama, to Fort Drum, NY, saw them near Washington, DC, when the first strikes happened. The instructor pilot took over from Matt and pointed the chopper towards the Capitol. The crew survived thanks to EM radiation hardening incorporated into the Chinook model. Matt was appalled by the carnage in what had been Washington, DC. The crew agreed to locate and rescue survivors on their flight over the wreckage. Before they located anyone, though, the first machines appeared. Several T-1 units opened fire on the Chinook from the ground while Hunter/Killer unit engaged the Chinook in the air. The crew returned fire, but the Skynet units were far more efficient and accurate with their fire. The Chinook lost both engines, prompting Matt and the IP to attempt an autorotation landing. However, the Chinook’s primary and redundant hydraulic systems were damaged, causing the drive shaft of the helicopter to shear itself in half. With the bird’s back essentially broken, the Chinook fell from the sky. Matt eventually joined the aviation elements of the 3rd Infantry Regiment and began conducting missions with the survivors of Judgement Day.