Cronkite junior Chris Cadeau uses experience, platform to break stereotypes that surround returning soldiers
Arizona State University junior Christopher Cadeau wants to help change the narrative that veterans are either homeless or heroes, and he has created a radio show dedicated solely to telling more diverse stories of the people who’ve served.
“Veterans Diaries” wrapped its first season last month on KASC-The Blaze, ASU’s AM radio station.
A 30-year-old sports journalism major at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Cadeau said was pleased with the results of his first semester behind the microphone. He is also pushing to get better.
“Honestly, I’m never satisfied, and it’s hard for me to accept praise,” said Cadeau, whose background includes eight years in the Marines. He also has five years of recovery.
“I once asked my sponsor, ‘When does this chip on my shoulder go away? When am I going to be OK with where I am in my life?’”
That chip developed as a young child growing up in Canton, Michigan, Cadeau said. He cites his parents’ divorce at age 4 and the rape of a sibling as the first of several emotional blows. As a teen, Cadeau got into trouble with the law and embraced drugs and alcohol. He knew the Marines could turn his life around.
“I was very street smart and good at evaluating pros and cons,” Cadeau said. “The pros were: You’re going to leave this situation; you’re going to get three meals a day; you’re going to have a career.”
He said the cons were just as clear. “If you stay here, you will go to jail.”
Cadeau said he joined the Marines in 2006 and ended up as a fighter jet mechanic, working on F-18s in Miramar, California, near San Diego. He transitioned back into civilian life and took advantage of his GI Bill benefits, eventually being accepted into ASU in December 2015.
He wanted to pursue sports journalism after a heartfelt discussion with a sponsor in his recovery program.
“My sponsor asked, ‘What do you love to do?’ I told him I love sports journalism and have always been infatuated with it,” Cadeau said. “If you add up all the hours I’ve spent in sports from the moment I come home to the time I’m on my smartphone looking up results, I need to find a way to get paid for this.”
He also called ASU’s Pat Tillman Center for Veterans and spoke to Joanna Sweatt, a former military advocate at the center. Cadeau said her first words were, “Everything’s going to be OK.”
Sweatt recruited Cadeau for the center’s work-study program. He currently works for the center’s outreach team, led by Matt Schmidt.
“We’re always trying to find new ways to engage student vets, and because Chris is a journalism major, the idea of a radio show came naturally,” said Schmidt, a recruitment specialist. “Chris is a natural leader and saw this not only as a challenge, but as way to impact lives and change the narrative about veterans.”
Schmidt said Cadeau shows how veterans are returning to college and civilian life and making a difference in their communities. He said stereotypes pigeonhole and marginalize returning soldiers; Cadeau’s show helps change that perception.
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