Sgt. Matthew J. Rittner, 35, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was an infantry rifleman with the Marine Corps Reserve's Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines out of Milwaukee. A Greenfield High School graduate, he enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2003 and served for eight years, attaining the rank of sergeant. He deployed twice to the Middle East, including to Fallujah in support of Operation Phantom Fury in the area known as the Triangle of Death. During his first tour, the vehicles in his unit were hit by multiple improvised explosive devices and his unit was involved in a four-hour firefight. After his Marine service, he dedicated 17 years to the Milwaukee Police Department, where he was a tenured member of the Tactical Enforcement Unit. He and other officers helped free hostages in two separate incidents in 2015, for which he received a Meritorious Service Award and the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor, the highest award for law enforcement officers in the United States.
"On February 6, 2019, Officer Rittner was shot and killed in the line of duty while executing a search warrant on the 2900 block of South 12th Street in Milwaukee. He was laid to rest on what would have been his 36th birthday. As his hearse passed the Marine Corps Reserve Unit in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood, Marines stood at attention in tribute. He leaves behind his wife and a young son. "You expect to lose Marines in combat, not here," a fellow veteran said of him."
"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old."
— Laurence Binyon