BOURBON, Mo. — "We owe them far more than they get": That's the message from one Wentzville father, whose Marine son made the ultimate sacrifice. Mark Schmitz is honoring his son Jared Schmitz with a gift that'll impact veterans across our country.
Schmitz took his heartbreak and turned it into a lifelong mission after his son Jared was killed in Afghanistan in 2021. The Marine Lance Corporal was one of 13 U.S. service members killed in Kabul during America's withdrawal.
Since that day, Schmitz vowed the 13 would never be forgotten, and he's helping other veterans along the way through Freedom Camps.
"When you're faced with a situation like that, you have to decide what you're going to do moving forward, and we wanted to carry on our son's legacy and provide a safe place for veterans and their families to go and take a knee for a week," he said.
It's a decision the Schmitz family had to make on Aug. 26, 2021.
"The Freedom 13 was formed after our son Jared Schmitz Marine Lance Corporal was killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the last days of the war," he said.
The Schmitz family decided to turn their tragedy into change by creating the nonprofit The Freedom 13 to ensure their son's name, along with the 12 others killed, will always be remembered.
"When someone's deployed or enters the military, it's not just the veterans that are sacrificing. It's the families as well. So, strengthening that family unit is very important to us," he said.
That strength will come on 171 acres in Bourbon, Missouri. Freedom Camps will provide a safe place for veterans and their families for a week, Schmitz said.
"We just saw a missing link in that there's just no place consistently that veterans can go all year round and just be around other veterans, so that's why we came up with this concept," he said.
Schmitz said the recreational camps will consist of 13 households on each campground, where veterans and their families can connect through nature while also receiving emotional support.
"Each camp will provide hunting and fishing, swimming, hiking, Side By Side trail rides," he said. "We'll partner with other organizations that bring in service dog help, counseling services, employment services, suicide prevention. The sky is the limit as far as the partnerships that we can yield out of this, so we've got plenty of space and being in nature is just so therapeutic by itself."
The camp in Missouri also has an inground pool, shooting range and three four-wheelers. A paid veteran and their family will live on-site, rent-free, and run the retreat. Schmitz said the camp in Crawford County is just the beginning.
"Once we complete 50 camps, we'll be helping over 31,000 veterans a year, just by simply having all of our freedom camps in all the 50 states," he said.
Schmitz said this is a way to light the way, for a community he believes, doesn't get enough support.
"We as a country, we owe them far more than they get. We look at anyone who's ever served this country as a hero simply by signing up and volunteering, I mean, that takes a very special human being to do that," he said.
5 On Your Side asked Schmitz if his hero, Jared, would be proud of what's created in his name. Schmitz replied with these powerful words, "Nothing I do on this earth is ever going to make him as proud of me as I am of him. We're doing this in his honor, and to carry on his legacy and to ensure that his name never dies. This is the camp that Jared built, and every one of them will be the camp that Jared built," he said.
Schmitz said it could take roughly two years until the freedom camp in Missouri is up and running. A lot of that, he said, depends on support from the community and corporate sponsors. Once the Missouri camp is completed, Schmitz said they'll start expanding it to other states.
If you are interested in becoming a corporate sponsor or helping with the camps, you can contact The Freedom 13 here or email mark@thefreedom13.com. You can donate here. You can also sign-up to automatically give monthly, through the nonprofit's $13 dollars a month campaign.