Sgt. Maj. Matt Parrish, a retired senior leader in the U.S. Special Operations Command, revealed to Fox News that he is the man behind the popular “Another SF Meme Page.”
After keeping his identity as the creator of the meme page a secret for over three years during his service as a top leader in Special Operations Command, Parrish told Fox News that running the military meme page allowed him to better serve his country.
“Across the military, humor has always been a great coping mechanism,” he said. “It’s always been something that’s united us.
Parrish told Fox News that what first started as a way to pass time during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown eventually became a way for Parrish to help active-duty service members and veterans.
Parrish enlisted in the U.S. military following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. According to Fox News, the military’s focus on the Global War on Terror provided him an opportunity to quickly join its special forces.
“As a young guy wanting to join and wanting to be surrounded by the best, I thought, man, what better ruler to put out there to try to join and be part of the Green Berets?” Parrish told Fox News.
After joining the military, Parrish was involved in multiple combat operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as deployments in Central and South America. In 2018, Parrish transitioned to become the first sergeant at SOCOM Headquarters. After two years at SOCOM, Parrish was tasked with leading the Preservation of the Force and Family, which focuses on the physical, psychological, and spiritual needs of service members.
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Around the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic began to shut things down, causing Parrish to spend additional free time on social media. During that time, Parrish downloaded a meme generator and launched his “Another SF Meme Page,” since “everybody seemed to be sprouting these things up.”
“I had just come from 13 straight years on a team, and I was missing some of that team room vibe of everybody poking fun at each other,” Parrish told Fox News.
According to Fox News, Parrish’s military meme page’s edgy humor was one of the main reasons no one other than Parrish’s wife knew that he was the mastermind behind the page. Parrish reportedly did not want any of his fellow military leaders to be questioned about his posts, especially when some of the memes could have been political in nature.
“I try to make it where it’s not hyper political because everything seems to be politicized now,” Parrish noted. “But if I see a video of a politician stammering over something, I’m captioning it, ‘When you get asked a question in a language test and you don’t remember the answer…’”
Parrish told Fox News that as a leader in the military, the military meme page allowed him to have a “better finger on the pulse” of things that were happening in the military.
“I was in charge of a global organization, and I was learning things that I wouldn’t have known as the senior enlisted leader,” Parrish said, adding, “I started being able to witness to people and counsel them. And all of a sudden I had people that were coming back and saying, ‘Hey, I just got out of inpatient rehab. I went and took care of my substance abuse thing.’ Or, ‘Hey, I just got baptized and saved,’ and it was a result of me opening up to those things.”
Parrish highlighted the ability of humor to reach a larger audience about topics like post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide prevention. Parrish explained that each time he thought about shutting down his military meme page, someone would reach out to him with a story about how he had been able to impact their life.
“It was like, okay, God’s given me this opportunity that I would have never thought I’d have,” he said. “Let’s try to do as much as we can for good.”
After retiring from the Army earlier this year, Parrish hopes to be able to continue helping people by using his military meme platform.
Parrish told Fox News, “There are a lot of people who fake who they are. Now that I’m retired, I want to use the page for good. I want to continue to use it to raise charity, raise awareness for these causes.”
