The father of Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, among the 13 servicemembers killed during the U.S. exit from Kabul, is working to honor their memory while supporting veterans.
Gold Star Father Mark Schmitz had three choices.
He could let grief consume him for the rest of his life. He could pick up and move on. Or he could take the worst thing that ever happened to him and turn it into something that would outlast the pain.
“I know that my son was trying to create a legacy for himself by being in the Marine Corps and helping people,” Schmitz says on this week’s American Legion Tango Alpha Lima podcast. “We felt it was now our new mission to carry that torch that unfortunately he’s not able to carry anymore.”
His son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, was among 13 servicemembers killed at the Abbey Gate in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 26, 2021, during the chaotic evacuation of U.S. troops.
Jared had wanted to be a Marine since he was 8 years old. Unlike most kids, he never wavered. Through high school, Jared researched Marine training obsessively, showing up every Saturday for a year at a local recruiting office to train with enlistees, rain or shine or snow, before he’d even signed his own paperwork.
“I couldn’t have been more proud,” Mark recalls, “because he was so focused on becoming the Marine that he always wanted to be.”
Jared enlisted in 2019 at 18, made it through COVID-era service and was on a non-combatant evacuation mission when he was killed.
In the weeks after Jared’s death, condolence letters arrived by the hundreds. The mail reached over a foot tall, with most of the envelopes containing checks from strangers who wanted to do something to help.
Mark and his wife couldn’t bring themselves to spend a single dollar of it.
“No matter how we spun it, it felt like blood money to us,” he said. “What the hell could we ever buy with this money that would ever make us feel good spending it?”
Instead, they deposited it into a bank account, filed nonprofit paperwork with the IRS, and launched The Freedom 13, named for the 13 who died that day at Abbey Gate.
The mission is simple in theory, enormous in scale. The Freedom 13 plans to build recreational retreat camps in all 50 states, each on more than 100 acres of land, with 13 homes at every site — free for veterans, law enforcement and their immediate families. The first camp is currently under construction on 171 acres in Missouri.
These camps will all be therapeutic in nature and will have a primary mission of addressing mental health.
Each camp will have one large home for a live-in veteran or law enforcement camp director, and 12 additional ADA-compliant homes where guests stay a week at a time. Notably, none of those 12 homes will have a kitchen. Guests eat every meal together in the main house.
“It kind of forces them to have to talk to each other, get to know each other,” Mark explains. “We don’t want them cooking. We don’t want them doing dishes.”
In the chow hall, brochure boxes will offer no-obligation resources from partnering organizations. The philosophy behind it is one that any veteran will immediately recognize: healing doesn’t happen in isolation, and it can’t be forced. Healing happens when people who understand each other are put in proximity and given the space to let it happen naturally.
“We’re not here to force guys to have to admit they’ve got a problem,” Mark says. “We want them to enjoy God’s nature and heal at their own pace.”
The fundraising story behind the first camp is remarkable.
The initial condolence money, roughly $250,000, became the seed fund. Then Mark organized a pub crawl on what would have been Jared’s 21st birthday. He mentioned it in a Fox News interview. Within 48 hours, 204 bars and restaurants across 26 states had signed up to participate, raising another $250,000. They asked each venue to donate just 13% of the day’s proceeds. Most obliged.
A gala earlier this year raised nearly $918,000, almost double the $500,000 goal.
Today, the Freedom 13 coalition includes eight of the 13 families, who continue fighting for legislative changes such as expanding GI Bill benefits to allow transfer to younger siblings of fallen servicemembers, and increasing the military death benefit life insurance payout from $400,000 to $1 million.
“It’s still stuck at 400,000,” Mark says. “I don’t think that’s changed in 20 years.”
Mark, who drives a Freedom 13-wrapped F350 with a cargo trailer bearing the faces of all 13 fallen servicemembers, isn’t slowing down in his quest to honor his son. He takes advantage of every opportunity to share Jared’s story. He is truly committed to honoring the memories of all 13 who died at the Abbey Gate.
“I feel like my son would probably kick my ass if I didn’t do something to honor him,” he says. “So here we are.”
To support The Freedom 13, visit thefreedom13.org.
Also, Tango Alpha Lima hosts Adam Marr and Joe Worley discuss:
• Memorial Day events around the nation to remember the fallen.
• Memorial Day challenges. Among them: The Murph: a one-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats and another mile run, honoring Navy SEAL Lt. Michael P. Murphy, who was killed during Operation Red Wings.
• The surprising origin of the Battle Buddy system.
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