{"id":46796,"date":"2016-08-05T09:39:59","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T09:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2016\/08\/05\/range-15-star-accepts-unit-ball-invite-from-gold-star-wife-in-viral-video\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:53:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:53:48","slug":"range-15-star-accepts-unit-ball-invite-from-gold-star-wife-in-viral-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/spouse\/2016\/08\/05\/range-15-star-accepts-unit-ball-invite-from-gold-star-wife-in-viral-video\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Range 15&#8217; star accepts unit ball invite from Gold Star wife in viral video"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When a Gold Star wife seeking a date to an Army ball\u00a0shared her story with a Ranger-turned-entrepreneur-turned-zombie slayer, he was moved to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And when he released\u00a0his response on Facebook, members of the greater Army\u00a0community were moved to share. And share. And share some more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than 2 million views later, Mat Best&#8217;s acceptance of Rachel Richardson&#8217;s invitation to the 1-187 Battalion Ball at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, on Friday night became a social-media sensation. And the reaction of the video&#8217;s target audience might explain why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the suggestion\u00a0of her best friend, Erin McPhaill, Richardson recorded the 60-second video request for Best, writing her thoughts out on cards because, she said,\u00a0&#8220;sometimes talking about that kind of thing, you can get emotional. It can choke me up.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I was sitting at home, on my couch, just freaking out, I was shaking so bad,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Best, the president of Article 15 Clothing and one of the stars\/writers\/producers of the veteran-made zombie-apocalypse-comedy &#8220;Range 15,&#8221; began by noting his busy schedule,\u00a0including a recent overseas trip to screen &#8220;Range 15&#8221; for deployed troops. But just when it appeared she was heading for the brush-off:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Best said he was asleep when Richardson&#8217;s video picked up online momentum, but had plenty of messages from friends flagging him on its contents the next morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The context of the message, she really puts herself out there quite a bit by doing that,&#8221; Best said. &#8220;It was really heartfelt, you know? I thought, &#8216;I&#8217;ve got to do that.&#8217; &#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A crowdfunding\u00a0page had been established to help fund Best&#8217;s trip to Kentucky. He declined the money and pointed supporters toward a fundraiser for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/2d488x4c\">Joint Communications Unit Memorial<\/a>, a project of the Special Operations Communications Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His previous experience at Fort Campbell is limited to a meet-and-greet to promote <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leadslingerswhiskey.com\/\">whiskey<\/a>. He\u00a0recalled attending two Ranger balls while in uniform where a primary element was\u00a0&#8220;who can bring the hottest girl.\u00a0You&#8217;ve got guys bringing strippers.&#8221; He went to a Marine ball last year, having <a href=\"http:\/\/www.people.com\/article\/marine-ball-invite-mat-best-ronda-rousey\">requested\u00a0an invitation<\/a> to keep up with UFC fighter\/actress\u00a0Ronda Rousey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This time, things are different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;At first I didn&#8217;t like the publicity about this. I didn&#8217;t want to make it like, &#8216;Look how cool I am,&#8217; &#8221; Best said. &#8220;But her husband has been in <a href=\"http:\/\/taskandpurpose.com\/mat-best-perfect-response-widows-ball-invitation\/\">all<\/a> of these <a href=\"http:\/\/popularmilitary.com\/mat-best-responds-army-ball-invite-wife-fallen-soldier\/\">articles<\/a>, so people are actually going to read his story, and learn about his sacrifice.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8216;He loved his job&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s impossible to describe her late husband in a few sentences, but Rachel Richardson gave it a go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;When people ask me about him, the first word that comes to mind &#8230; is that he was the biggest smart-ass I&#8217;ve ever known,&#8221; she said Thursday night, discussing Sgt. Jonathan J. &#8220;Rich&#8221; Richardson, who died in 2010 in a suicide-bomb blast in Khowst province, Afghanistan. &#8220;He was very intelligent. He loved his job, and he was very, very good at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;He stood up for what he believed in. He was very passionate about the Army. &#8230; I got to see a side of him that not many other people saw. His softer side, his sweet side. He was a very affectionate, loving person. &#8230; There&#8217;s so many ways to describe him, there&#8217;s just not enough time.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Stuff like that, it goes a long way,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the outreach, she didn&#8217;t want to go to the ball alone; too depressing, she said. When she invited McPhaill, whose husband is deployed, her best friend suggested sending a video to Best, a longtime favorite that she first noticed, naturally, in a viral video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1XlH7as17tc\">How to Workout Like an Operator<\/a>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;And he was hot.\u00a0So I kept watching.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Ranger Mat Best will attend the Fort Campbell gathering. His video reply has been seen more than 2 million times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":85426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":18,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,18,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[787],"class_list":["post-46796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-spouse","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KCYREJOV2FHBPPSLXOVWPNV6HI","arc_canonical_url":"\/spouse\/2016\/08\/05\/range-15-star-accepts-unit-ball-invite-from-gold-star-wife-in-viral-video\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Range 15&#039; star accepts unit ball invite from Gold Star wife in viral video - Army Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Ranger Mat Best will attend the Fort Campbell gathering. 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