A Missouri Gold Star father is honoring his fallen military son by starting a non-profit organization.
Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz was one of 13 U.S. military members killed n August 2021 during America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“We feel like Jared was carrying a torch when he was over there, helping thousands of people escape the airport there,” said Mark Schmitz, father of Jared Schmitz. “And unfortunately, his torch was dropped due to the suicide bomber. And so, we picked it up, and we thought long and hard about what we could do to honor him.”
That was when The Freedom 13 was born.
“You lose a son or daughter like that, and you’re kind of just shrugging your shoulders like, ‘Well, now what? Our young hero is gone.’ And you’ve got to do something. And basically, you’re left with two options: you either dig a hole and you’re depressed the rest of your life, or you pick yourself up by the bootstraps and do something about it,” said Schmitz.
The organization is building a 171-acre recreational retreat in eastern Missouri’s Bourbon.
“It’s kind of a shame that it doesn’t really matter who’s in office, but there seems to be a shortfall when it comes to helping these veterans after they’re done with service. So we looked out there and didn’t really see anything that…we found some that did, like hunting trips and fishing excursions. All wonderful organizations, but they only do it a handful of times a year. And we wanted our organization to essentially service veterans all year round,” he said. “And so this camp idea, we opened up the idea to let these veterans come out for one week at a time, similar to an Airbnb.”
The property will have 13 homes for veterans and their families to stay. They can enjoy swimming, hunting, biking, hiking, pickleball, and other activities.
“We want the bonding to occur on our camps, not only between one veteran and another, but within their own family unit as well. You know, we want to strengthen all these wonderful warriors, and by staying at our camps for a week, I think just being able to take a knee and hit the reset button will certainly provide them the opportunity to do just that,” he said.
A completion date is up in the air. It all depends on the community’s help. The Freedom 13 is asking the public to help it build the thirteen homes.
“When we get our camp open, and we have veterans and their families in there for the very first time, that’s when the emotions are going to kick in because that’s what it’s for,” said Schmitz. “It’s there for these guys to use and hopefully come out of it much better people than when they came in. That’s where I’m going to see the effect of the camp that Jared built.”
The goal is to build similar retreats for veterans in all 50 states.
To help, visit TheFreedom13.org.
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