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On August 26, 2021, 13 American service members were killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, along with more than 150 Afghan civilians. Among them was Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz. He was just twenty years old. You're to tell the story of Jared's life. And the legacy he left behind is his father, Mark Schmitz.
Take it away, Mark. Jared. From a very young age, got along with literally everyone that he ever came in contact with. I have been racking my brain for years and I cannot. think of a single enemy my son ever had.
From the age of eight, he knew he wanted to be in the Marine Corps. You know, at that age, I joke with them. I said, when I was eight, I wanted to be a sniper, an astronaut, and a trash man.
So, you know, you kind of just take it for what it is at that age, but it never went away, you know. He kept talking about wanting to be a Marine, and as the years passed, I continually reminded him that. You don't get a reset on your life, you know.
So, if this is something you want to do, you know, we fully support you. Bye. Just know the seriousness of what it is you're trying to do for your life. And he knew that. My son was never a big kid, but despite his vertical challenges, he was about 5'8 ⁇ , 5'9.
He would always stick up for the little guy. Whenever he saw someone being bullied somewhere, regardless of how big the other person was, he would always interject himself in that situation to help out the little guy. And he was. Highly intelligent. He just never really spent a lot of time focusing on anything when it came to school, except for when it came to Googling things about the Marine Corps.
He spent hours researching what it would take to make it through the crucible, what were the workouts they did at the recruiting offices and whatnot on weekends. He actually even took it a step further at the age of 16, was making us take him to the training office up here in St. Peter's, Missouri. and he wanted to train with the guys that were actually enlisting. Every single Saturday, whether it was raining, shine, snow, didn't matter.
That kid was up there so much so, and his dedication was so steadfast that they actually let him lead some of the training classes there. That meant the world to him, but. That was pretty much my son in a nutshell. He was he was an all-American kid, just Excelled at everything he ever did. You know, he loved the premise of first-in, last out mentality that the Marine Corps possesses.
And he always has cared about people, you know, wanted to take care of people. It seems to be every Marine I ever meet, you know, it's kind of the same for all of them. They love to care for people.
So that was Jared. That was him growing up his entire life. You know, what better, bigger platform to do it than the U.S. Marine Corps? And there he there he was, a proud US Marine.
He really knew he made the right choice when he finally got that. First deployment call to go to Jordan. He was so good. He got to train with the DM and did it really, really well there. And Then from there he was only there for a short time and they got the call up to go to Cabool.
I did speak with him. The day after they landed, and as you probably remember from the news, it was just. Utter insanity. There are scenes of panic and pandemonium at Kabul airport. Thousands of Afghans have been rushing to Kabul airport.
The takeover of the city has triggered deadly scenes of panic at the airport. People are literally clinging on to US military aircrafts as they try to take off. U.S. Marines trying to help while securing the Kabul airport. I remember him telling me at that point.
They thought they were all going to die that first day. He told me that if you walked outside and your hands were above your head, they had to stay there because you were pressed so tightly between the person in front of you and behind you. Obviously, when your son is deployed, you want to keep an eye on what's going on and I watch the news daily. Breaking news to report coming out of Afghanistan. We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport.
Casualties are unclear at this time. The day before this had happened, I had talked to him and he told me that he was going to be moved from the Abbey Gate to the tarmac, which. I was excited for him to change the scenery and get him out of the chaos. Um he needed they all needed that break. But When the bomb went off and it hit the news.
I um My heart sunk. Not because I thought something happened to my son, but because As time went on, we started to hear about there was one casualty, then there were two, and three, and four, etc. And my heart broke for those that were lost, and then, of course, their families that were. would be getting that terrible knock on the door. All along thinking my son was okay because at least he was inside handling business there.
Time went by, and I never got a call. I never got a text letting me know he was okay. I called a friend of mine, he was marine. He had served previously, and he's, you know, he's like, Don't worry about it, Mark. He's a little busy right now.
He'll get back to you. His brothers have got his back. I'm like, you're right.
So with that, we went to bed. And As I always do, I had the news on when I went to bed, and still no new developments except for the body count kept getting higher until it finally stopped at 13. It was 2:42 in the morning that night that I heard a faint knock on the front door. As I approach the front door, I see the uh dark figures of two people on the other side of the door and you know, I kind of approached cautiously and I started to see Um shiny um looking metals on their chest and I'm like Just utterly confused. You know, I had just been woken up in the middle of the night and.
And as I opened the door there's two Marines standing there and And they confirmed who I was. and asked if they could speak to me and I said, Are you guys here for an injury report? I th you know, I thought was trying to will it to be that they're just here to give me that kind of news, not the news I was about to get.
So we sat at the dining room table, and that's when they. delivered the terrible news that Jared was unfortunately one of those thirteen. I just sat there. I had Really no reaction at first. I mean, I I it didn't click that this was really happening.
They were there for maybe 45 minutes, I guess, and Once they left. That's when as soon as I shut the door. It all hit. I collapsed in my wife's arms. I was...
Yelling, I was crying, I was, you know, just utterly hysterical. And, um, I just Yeah, I'd It was by far the worst day of our lives. Our entire world was turned upside down. We're just grieving and and Scratching our heads, like, where do we go from here? What do we do?
Like We have a very deep faith in God. I know I'll see my son again. His mission here on earth was accomplished and over, and it was time for him to be called home. Mine is not. And at that point, I knew that My son's legacy was very important and it needed to be carried on.
And so. I'm like, we're going to do something. We're going to change the world for the better. We're going to take this tragedy and turn it into something positive. Yeah, and between that 30 and 45 days after his passing, Is when we developed the concept behind what has now become our 501c3, the Freedom 13.
And you've been listening to Mark Schmitz, the father of Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz. These are news stories we hear about, we see. But the real life people, we make sure that these lives are remembered. And that's why we do this show. When we come back, what happens next?
How Mark Schmitz. makes his son's legacy live on. That story here on Our American Stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years.
And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q.
That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Most Mother's Day gifts end up in a drawer, but a song lives in the heart forever. This year, tryjoybox.com is giving away 1 million free custom songs to celebrate 1 million incredible moms. Just share a few memories, and Joybox produces an original track in greeting card just for her instantly. It's the most personal gift you'll ever give, and right now, it's completely free.
Make mom the star of her own song at tryjoybox.com. One million songs, zero dollars, only at tryjoybox.com. Is your Jesus shaped more by culture than scripture? In our instant world, we've made Jesus a life coach, a therapist, a political ally. The Missing Messiah, a new book by Kyle Eidelman and Mark Moore, helps us understand how Western culture has gradually reshaped Jesus into our image and recognizes the difference between a personalized savior and revolutionary king.
If you believe there's a more dangerous, more majestic Messiah than the one you've inherited, visit missingmessiah.com to learn more today. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high-free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work.
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Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com/slash disclosures. Mm-hmm. And we return to Our American Stories and the story of Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz. When we last left off, we heard from his father Mark about the day his family's world changed.
and about the beginning of something he calls the Freedom XIII.
Now Mark shares what that mission is. and why it matters. Here's Mark. We knew that there was. not enough being done for the veteran community out there.
You know, even though only 1% wear the uniform. There are still hundreds of thousands of them out there that Or um hiding scars that most of us will never see because they're invisible. I wanted to come up with the concept of like a mental healing camp, you know, a retreat, if you will. Yeah, and we knew that Being out in God's country, you know, out on a big, vast open area of land, is therapeutic just by itself, but that's just the first piece of it.
So, what we basically have come up with is recreational mental healing camps for veterans. And law enforcement, and open up these camps to those groups of people and their immediate families. because I think that family unit is absolutely crucial. Even though Your dad, your brother, your mom, your sister might have been deployed. The family is deployed with them, even if they're not physically there with them, they're going through their own things.
And so when it comes to healing, it's important that I think the wife and the husband are working together now, you know, in this healing process. And same with the kids. And uh because we've seen what's happened to our our daughters since all this. It's not been good.
So, with these recreational retreat camps, we're going to have 13 homes built on each one. to represent the 13 that were lost that day. Yeah, and they'll be on 100 acres of land or more. And this will operate similar to like an Airbnb where we'll just have groups of families coming through on a weekly basis. We want to do this in all 50 states.
And 13 homes at each would make 650 houses that we would have to build across the country on over 50,000 acres. And that would service roughly 33,000 veterans and/or law enforcement and their families. We want these people to come out. Share the nature, share the experience. There'll be fishing, hiking, hunting, pickleball courts, sand volleyball, playground for young kids.
We've got five miles of riding trails. We want them to basically take an eat for the week. We're not going to make this a real structured environment where it's hardcore classroom setting type therapy. It's you, you get the therapy you need when you need it. We'll provide them the resources, partnering with outside organizations that specialize in the service dogs or PTSD, suicide prevention, that sort of thing.
Anxiety, depression, you know, all those avenues will be provided by outside organizations. we're providing the safe space for them to do all this in. The mission itself is simple in mind set, but it's massive in scale. We went into Lowe's, a local Lowe's store, looking for some support and help. Apparently each store is allotted $2,500 to do whatever they need or feel they want to use to contribute to the community.
and Danielle at that particular Sullivan Lowe store Took it a step further and reached out to nine other Lowe's stores and got nine other stores to. Combine their efforts of $2,500 a month.
So now we're talking $25,000, and they came out. And gave us composite decking for the main house needed to have all new decks put on. A ton of landscaping, lighting, et cetera, and they didn't just donate the stuff. They actually sent out over 50 of their employees. And they had their very own volunteer day, and they literally came out like a mini Lowe's army and.
They they knocked it out. You know, it's it's stuff like that that just Helps us out so much. I mean, they didn't just even contribute the materials, they actually stepped up even further than that. In fact, Prior to doing that, the same Lowe's team came in and painted the entire interior of the main house, which is 3,100 square feet. It's not a small place.
And they knocked that thing out in a day. And, um, Then Just turned it around. It looks fantastic. Each of the houses that we build will be dedicated to one of the 13.
So there'll be a plaque outside the home that says, This is the house that Jared built, or this is the house that Corine built, or this is the house that Taylor built. You know, and it'll have a little brief bio on who they were so that the visitors can get to know them a little bit too, and it just keeps their names alive a little bit longer, you know. It's a It's a monumental undertaking, but it's become my new mission in life. I never would have dreamed of. Running or having a 501c3 non-profit, but here I am, you know, and For me, this is my therapy.
This is what gets me through every day. And My son and I were always very competitive, so, this is my way of trying to compete with. the great bark sea left in this world. that I will never be able to beat him, but I'm I'm gonna work my tail off even if it kills me to get as much done as I can to honor him and, more importantly, take care of his brothers and sisters in service. He uh I think he'd be honored.
You know, I had one of his commanding officers approach me afterwards and said, if. If your son had 30 seconds, A heads-up notice of what was about to happen. Would he want to go anywhere else? Would he want to be anywhere else? And I said, absolutely not.
And he said, why is that? I said, because that would mean one of his brothers or sisters in service would. take the hit and he would never allow for that. And um And he said, Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Doing something like this is helping his brothers and sisters in service and That is the legacy I think he would want us to run with and that's That's why I'm pouring everything into it that I've got.
I mean, I still run two other companies that pay my own bills, and I barely even touch those anymore. I find myself spending. Full-time hours on a weekly basis, dedicating my time to the Freedom 13 and trying to make this thing a success. The community support we couldn't have done. And gotten to where we are without them.
And I'm not talking about just the financial side of things, I'm talking about just getting through life. I mean, those first. few weeks were were absolutely horrendous. And everywhere we went, you know, people were Filling up our gas tank, paying our lunch. Not that we wanted any of that, but it was.
It was nice to see the respect that they were giving us that that That was huge. And Just to have People come up and give me a hug in the grocery store just because they'd seen our faces on the news so much. to let us know that they cared and that our son's life did matter. was was huge. Um I've heard I'm sorry for your loss a thousand times, and I appreciate every one of them, but.
There was one story I'll share with you. I was asked to come to a local BFW and And I walked in and There were a small group of men that were there, and they all wanted to meet me. It was Jared's father. Yeah, and they all gave me full salute as I came in. Yeah.
There was one old gentleman, he probably was his late 80s, early 90s, even. was in a wheelchair and he stood up out of the wheelchair. and literally it was just you could see the tears streaming down his face and And uh after he removed his salute, he came and gave me a huge hug and he said Your son is my brother. That's when I knew that brotherhood thing really was a real deal. This could have been Jared's great-great-grandfather, you know, by age.
He's an old-timer Marine veteran. He still looked and respected him as a brother because they were both devil dogs. Um That was huge. My most proudest accomplishment in my life was having him as a son. I mean, I could live ten lifetimes and never hold a candle to to what this kid accomplished over there.
I couldn't be more proud of them. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Madison Derricott. And a special thanks. To Mark Schmitz, for sharing the story of his son, Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, his life. His death.
and his legacy. And what a story. I mean, we learned early on that he wasn't big in stature, only 5'8 or 5'9, but always. His son would stick up for the little guy. By the age of eight, he knew he wanted to be a Marine.
How about that? He loved the ethos of the Marine Corps, first in, last out, and that brotherhood that you just heard about. And of course, the work that the father's doing with this group, the Freedom 13, a mental health retreat, 13 homes, 50 states. That's 650 houses, 50,000 acres, a retreat for military families and of course first responder families as well. 650 houses, 50,000 acres.
What a legacy Mark is building for his son. And by the way, go to thefreedom13.org to help support their mission, thefreedom13.org. The story of Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz as told by his father, here. on our American stories. Uh Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans.
It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues.
Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Most Mother's Day gifts end up in a drawer, but a song lives in the heart forever. This year, tryjoybox.com is giving away 1 million free custom songs to celebrate 1 million incredible moms. Just share a few memories, and Joybox produces an original track and greeting card just for her.
Instantly. It's the most personal gift you'll ever give, and right now it's completely free. Make mom the star of her own song at tryjoybox.com. One million songs, zero dollars, only at tryjoybox.com. I'm U.
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Do not speed. A few minutes saved by going faster. is never worth a risk.
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