With the recent injuries of both Jake Froman and Logan Lowrey, they will both be forced to sit out the Cajun Classic National Enduro in Louisiana on April 28th. After talking with Title Sponsor XC Gear Owner, Lance Smith and Team Manager Mike ‘Napper’ Napieralski, we wanted to find a special guest rider for this event. What is more special than giving back to someone that has put their life on the line to protect and serve this country for us to be able to ride our dirt bikes and race events like the National Enduro Series so freely? We have decided to reach out to an Acadiana Dirt Riders club member and Marine Corps Veteran, Former Sgt. Matthew Barrett. We offered Sgt. Barrett to be a ‘Factory Rider for a Weekend’, and he could not have been more excited! In his own words he didn’t get more than an hour of sleep the night that he found out he was going to be able to take part in this opportunity. To have a response like that, to have so much gratitude for such a simple gesture, compared to what he put on the line for us civilians is incredible. We feel as the XC Gear/ Enduro Engineering/ Husqvarna Race team, it is the least that we can do for Sgt. Barrett and for all active/veteran military personnel. Sgt. Barrett has expressed to us that this is not just for him, this is for anyone that is serving, has served, or will serve in the United States Military, he is just the one lucky enough to represent them.
Matthew states “I am beyond grateful for what the people of the XC Gear/ Enduro Engineering/ Husqvarna team have offered me. It plays a huge role in all military lives to have the support from their community. It’s acts like this that help us in our daily lives outside of the Military. What we do or have done with our service would not be possible without the support from our communities. I just want everyone to know that any support and gratitude you can give our Military Personnel goes a long way and helps us in duty and after duty tremendously.”
ABOUT SGT. MATTHEW BARRETT
Born/raised: November 9, 1988; Houma, Louisiana
My father, James Barrett, started my siblings and I riding at age three, and we have been riders ever since. Together, we have traveled to or through nearly every state to ride bikes and explore. Some of our favorites include riding the Utah Paiute trail system as well as Taylor Park and Silverton, Colorado areas.
I became a member of the Acadiana Dirt Riders club at birth and remain one to this day. I was raised at that club and riding there nearly every weekend during racing season until I was 18 and started a new adventure by joining the United States Marine Corps in 2007.
Removing me from my KX60 at age 9 and placing me on a YZ 400 was the most memorable challenge that my father bestowed upon me during that time.
I always knew the Marine corps was what I wanted to do after spending countless hours listening to the stories of my many Marine family members who served before me. There was never any pressure from family for me to join; it was just something that I felt I needed to do for myself just as they had. My life-long friend, Aaron Henry, joined the Marines with me as we made grand plans to go everywhere together only to find out that that’s not how it works in the Marine world. We didn’t see each other for nearly 8 years.
I served as a 2631 Electronic Intelligence Analyst for two enlistments with the United States Marine Corps including a successful tour to Afghanistan in 2010 (when I also became the proud father of my daughter, Naomi Lynn Barrett, born while I was deployed), and finally achieving the rank of sergeant just before my medical discharge in 2014 due to a (non-combat related) leg injury
that could not be corrected by military medical.
My most profound memories in the service come from being stationed in Colorado where I met two marines who became my family over time as we served and lived among each other always. There was no doubt that when Renata Rock and Jason McKesson were around there would always be good cheer to lift your soul up from the depths of your woes through the always outrageous and, very nearly, constant perpetration of “evil little shenanigans.”
Very sadly, we lost our sister, Rock, to a post deployment suicide July 13, 2013; McKesson and I continue to honor her memory at every gathering, along with all the heroes that we have lost throughout our nation’s history.
After exiting the service, I reunited with my family and the ADR club to finally catch up on tons of missed seat time.
During these past two years, my daughter has begun riding and shows great interest in the sport, which makes me very happy and proud to pass this great tradition of adventure onto her.
As for me, now my hobbies include: filming my own crashes, meeting single new trees in my area, overshooting turns, and i like popping long wheelies on the beach (some times, I even land them).
Through all of this though, even with everywhere I’ve been, everything I’ve done, and my many years of riding, never in all my years have I been this excited to sit on a bike.
