All across America and around the world, this
is Veterans Radio. This is Veterans Radio. And
now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
Welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is Dale Throneberry.
I was a CW -2 helicopter pilot in Vietnam in
1969, just to give a little credibility here
to the program. So yes, this is Veterans Radio
and we are broadcasting live from Ann Arbor,
Michigan right now on Sunday afternoon, 5 p .m.
Eastern Time. If you want to listen to us live,
this is the time to do it. If you're listening
tomorrow or the next day, you're probably getting
a recorded version of this story. come on in
on Sunday evening and we'll you know sit around
have a cup of coffee and talk about what you
know whatever our experiences were that's what
the whole idea of this program is to get record
our stories keep them going and let them be out
there in the atmosphere wherever they are and
people can listen to them from now to whatever
eternity is I guess is what they call that so
I'm really happy to have you here today we've
got two organizations that we're going to feature.
One is local here in Ann Arbor and that is Camp
Liberty, Michigan and Larry San Antoine is the
president of that organization. He'll be on in
just a second and then the other one is an organization
called the Freedom 13 and Mark Schmitz is going
to be on Hopefully we will talk to him later
on and he'll be telling us about that organization
So this is another kind of our series of veterans
help veterans helping veterans And I'm excited
to talk to both of them if you feel like you
need to get in on the conversation Feel free
to give us a call here at seven three four eight
two two sixteen hundred seven three four eight
two two sixteen hundred Before we talk to Larry,
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I'm thanking you in advance. So, let's get into
today's program. Guest number one today is a
good friend of Veterans Radio and a personal
friend of mine, and that is Larry St. Antoine.
Larry was a Navy CB in Vietnam. I think he spent
much more time there than I did, which is fine
with me at the time. So he's also very active
in the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 310,
and he also happens to be the newly elected president
of Camp Liberty, Michigan. Larry, welcome to
Veterans Radio. Thank you for having us Dale
and I say yes because I I Take the place of everybody
there Yeah, I understand it so tell me a Little
bit about Camp Liberty. What what is makes Camp
Liberty is so special well Camp Liberty Has started
quite a while ago, but we just redid it in the
2022 because former president had passed away
and there was none of the former board members
wanted to come forward. So we decided to take
it over in 2022 and revamp everything. And so
it's a 138 acre camp. We have two buildings.
We do outside recreation for veterans and hunting.
We were bordered by the river raisin on two sides
of the of the camp so we can do fishing there
but we've also installed a pond now that which
we will be stocking so families can come and
fish there. The board members include Jay Truchon
who is the sheriff in Norville Township. He's
the vice president and they made me president
because We just started taking first responders
in. Police, ambulance, fire department. And they're
doing the hunts and they're the farm, the lodge
and everything is available for them when we
have it available. So they decided because I'm
an ex Detroit police officer, an ex veteran,
they put me in charge of it. We do... Three deer
hunts a year two pheasant hunts and a turkey
hunt and we're talking about opening a coyote
in it the first Well, yeah, and and it it helps
the The livestock that's available, you know,
even the the sheep farmers have dogs out with
their sheep just to keep the coyotes away so
We have just also the first year we Was really
a test because we didn't know all new board members
all new, you know taking over our fundraiser
We had a car show And it was very successful.
We had 32 cars show up we had a band we had Raffles
and a bouncy thing for kids and stuff like that.
And so we've been we've been very fortunate that
the last four years our fundraisers have really
expanded. And I know that a lot of people wonder,
you know, how you figure out if you're doing
well. And we figured out that over 80 cents of
every dollar we make goes to the veteran and
the rest goes for like insurance and just upkeep
of our equipment and everything. We want to expand
even more by having clinics, PTS clinics and
having the lodge available for other organizations
to have their meetings. I don't know if Warriors
and Caregivers United, WACU is another organization
and they have in the past had meetings there
and they would like to continue on with us and
have their meetings there too. So it's one of
the things where, go ahead. No, I was just going
to say that as I mentioned, this organization
is nearby. Well, not really like nearby, but
it's it's where is Camp Liberty, Michigan located?
It's in Brooklyn, Michigan, and it's we're about
seven miles west of Manchester on Austin Road,
just off Austin Road. So we have a lot to do
with the local businesses in both Napoleon, Brooklyn,
and especially Irish Hills. We do a lot with
Irish Hills people. We just got two new board
members, both young veterans. So one of them
is Chad fires. He's a veteran and he owns the
Callaghan's coffee company in Brooklyn and The
other one is Craig Pearson. He's a pilot He's
a veteran pilot and he works at the at the Napoleon
Airport there and he flies he's one that flies
the paratroopers and you know, okay all the jumpers
and stuff out there All the jumpers and everything
else like that so plus he flies all over the
world so but they are a couple young New board
members that we hope will stick with us and because
those old guys only can last so long Yeah, I
can understand that sometimes I think we're just
kind of hanging on by our fingernails, but I
think the idea of Camp Liberty is so cold Larry
when you when you When you think that the organization
has been around for a while, as you mentioned,
kind of had its ups and downs, changes to boards
and some conflicts and so forth. But you've turned
it around and it's a... No, from my standpoint,
it's a beautiful place to go to. It's a great
place to go. You can hang out with veterans and
first responders now and everybody else. I just
got a little note that says that John Kinzinger
is on the line and would like to join us if he
can. So John, John Kinzinger calling us from
Florida. John, welcome back to Veterans Radio.
O'Dale and Larry, good to hear your voices. It's
good to hear you. I had to call in and talk about
Camp Liberty because I was vice president for
when we did the reorganization. I had to step
down because of physical issues, but that camp
is such a beautiful place. The lodge has four
beautiful bedrooms for veterans to come out and
haunt. The focus is really on disabled veterans.
It's not just... We're not, we were not looking
for, you know, anyone who served in the military,
but a hundred percent disabled was the real goal.
And we have track chairs, you know, to get guys
out to deer blinds. And it's a, it's a beautiful
piece of property. And it's as well maintained
plants, you know, there's plantings out there
to attract the wildlife. And Larry has taken
over and You know, he's done so much work out
there in the last few years. I got to thank him
for that. But I just want to call in and say
Camp Liberty is someplace that is helping veterans.
Some of the responses from some of those guys
who come out there for deer hunts just can't
believe how well we treat them because it's no
cost. No cost to the veterans coming out. If
you want to donate, that's fine. But there's
no cost to the veterans coming out. We just...
want to make use of that Camp Liberty. I said
we, Larry, but that doesn't mean I'm coming back,
huh? Got to get you back from Florida anyway.
But great to have you on there. I'll continue
listening and Larry's doing a good job there.
Thanks. Thanks very much, John. Say hi to Jane
for us. It's a great organization that you've
got out there, Larry, and it's a great facility.
When John was saying that we have four bedrooms
in the chalet kind of structure that is out there,
I thought, wow, that is really kind of cool.
I was not aware of what was upstairs. The four
bedrooms are set up two downstairs. and two upstairs
and everything downstairs is handicapped little
uh we have walk -in showers uh everything and
so each hunt other than the pheasant hunts we
bring four four veterans in and uh we have people
to help them we have someone who feeds them and
uh we even had one come from texas we picked
them up at the airport dropped them off at the
airport and we sent his deer back email. No.
Well, one thing we're trying to do to help us
because all we've been doing for the last four
years is living on just donations alone. You
know, you get $5 here, $10 there and stuff like
that. We are looking for different organizations
or different companies that will sponsor each
hunt. And so we have the three deer hunts and
the turkey hunt which has four veterans in each
one of them. Now the pheasant hunts are two pheasant
hunts and we do 20 veterans a day because we
do two hunts and we have to buy the turkeys,
I mean the pheasants. So we put out 40 pheasants
for the 10 hunters in the morning and 40 pheasants
for the 10 hunters in the afternoon and we do
that twice a year. So it's not cheap, but we
get a good discount with Pheasants of America.
It's just something that would be nice to be
able to summon this to sponsor each hunt every
year for us or something like that. Well, I saw
that you just recently got a nice little donation
from the, was that the American Legion that you
got a donation from or the VFW? No, that was
American Legion 46 in Ann Arbor. And they're
covering the Liberty Hunt, which is the first
hunt for disabled veterans only. And you have
to prove that they're 100%. And then the second
hunt is the Independence Hunt, which is the same
thing. 100 % disabled veterans. And then the
next hunt is the original hunt, you know, the
regular hunt everybody goes to a year. So that's
veterans and first responders. Well, I think
one of the things that... And then the pheasant
hunts. Go ahead. All right, I will. One of the
things that John pointed out, and one of the
first things that I learned about Camp Liberty
is that you had those crawlers, I guess you could
call them, where 100 % disabled veterans could
go out and hunt because these... I don't know
though because they're like their track and you
it actually helps the veterans stand up and You
know it moves through the fields and everything
else and allows them to actually participate
in the hunt which the hunts in which I think
is so it's absolutely amazing and That has to
be such a big confidence builder for the veterans
that go out there that you know that they're
able to actually participate in this particular
adventure that they're going on. They go hunting.
I just think that you guys are doing a great
job. It's really great to watch them because
we have eight blinds and four of them are track
chairs can get inside. We have guides go with
them and so it's more the camaraderie after the
hunt. you know because they're there for more
than one day and so they go out and hunt but
they come back and they spend the evening in
front of the fireplace or if it's nice outside
we have a fireplace outside so it's them getting
together more than even if they don't get a deer
or they don't get a pheasant or they don't get
a turkey but it's getting together and and meeting
people veterans who you don't know, but you're
meeting them and learning them, and it's a brotherhood
that really makes a big difference. We're, you
know, we would like people just to be aware of
us, you know, by going on our webpage. libertymichigan
.org or our Facebook page, Camp Liberty, the
number four, and then VETS, V -E -T -S. And they'll
see all our schedules for all our hunts and the
things that we're doing. And we even have all
our books, our monetary, online so people can
look and see what we've made, what we spent,
and stuff like that. So it's one of the things
where we want to be open to the public. of what
we're doing here. We also have weddings. We have
an outdoor chapel where we have weddings. That's
doing a little bit of everything. I think that's
cool. That's the other thing. I think you turn
that into an Airbnb. But you got to make sure
you get those veterans available. So are you
guys open for just going out there and any weekend
or any day of the week? Or is it what do you
do? I do give, because I'm only 10 minutes away,
that's another reason why they found me to be
president, because I'm there all the time. At
this time, there is only certain days that we
can get there because we got other things going
on. We got work people going out there and working,
you know, bush hogging the lanes and things like
that. That's a call. That's my phone. But I think
that the main thing is if they are interested,
they can give me a call at 734 -323 -7905 and
I will set up something where they can come out
and look. And we also have a program director,
Melinda Schwinn. And her number is 517 -206 -8633.
And she's the one who does the organizing for
us for the fundraisers and everything else. And
we also are looking for people experienced in
doing grants who will volunteer to do grants
for us in the future for larger donations in
that. And they can get a hold of me or Melinda.
Those grant writing things are difficult sometimes
for those of us who are kind of unexperienced.
If you have somebody that can help you with writing
those grants, that's great. That's great. It
would help us expand on even the stuff that we're
doing now and adding. We've got a beekeeper that
wants to come out. and teach the veterans how
to do bees and stuff like that, so. That sounds
like just about a little bit of everything, Larry.
We're talking with Larry C. and Antoine. He's
the president of Camp Liberty, Michigan, and
it's a retreat for veterans, first responders.
uh firemen, policemen, anybody that you know
has to work with the public and I think that
that's kind of really uh important and so you
know we're really encouraging people to try and
contact Larry through the website that's uh CampLibertyMichigan
.org or as you mentioned you can find him on
Facebook or I want to give out your number one
more time Larry. My phone number? Yep. Mine is
734 -323 -7905. Okay, and hopefully those people
can reach you and they can help out with Camp
Liberty because I think it's certainly a worthwhile
cause. It's something local here and I know that
people are trying to do these types of things
all across the country. but it's something that
we are, we're really proud of Camp Liberty Michigan
and what you've done Larry and what people like
John and the people that went before you just
to get this thing started. I can remember hearing
about Camp Liberty probably about 20 years ago
almost. I think it's been 12 or 15 years that
it's been running. Okay all right so CampLibertyMichigan
.org go to it. We're going to run our Medal of
Honor segment right now and when we come back
we've got Mark Schmitz who's going to be on our
line and he's from another organization that
is building retreats down in Missouri right now
and it's called the Freedom 13. I'll let Mark
tell us what the magic number 13 is. So you're
listening to Veterans Radio right now and we
will be right back after our Medal of Honor segment.
The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor
in combat given a member of the Armed Forces
of the United States. There had been over 3 ,400
recipients of the nation's highest award. This
is one of them. Marine Corps Sergeant Daniel
Matthews became a one -man army before being
killed. Details after this. If you have a VA
claim denied by the Board of Veterans' Appeals,
contact Legal Help for Veterans at 1 -800 -693
-4800. They're experts in handling cases before
the U .S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
Their number again, 1 -800 -693 -4800. Participating
in a counterattack against a firmly entrenched
and well -concealed North Vietnamese force, Matthews
fearlessly advanced in the attack until his squad
was pinned down by a murderous sweep of fire
from an enemy machine gun. Observing that the
deadly fire prevented a corpsman from removing
a wounded man in an open area, Matthews worked
his way to the base of the Hostile and Machine
Gun emplacement, leaped onto the rock formations
surrounding the gun, and single -handedly charged
the Hostile emplacement with his rifle. Although
severely wounded when the enemy brought a withering
halo fire to bear upon him, he continued his
one -man assault, and firing his rifle with deadly
effectiveness, succeeded in killing two of the
enemy, routing a third, and completely silencing
the enemy weapon. thereby enabling his comrades
to evacuate the stricken Marine to a safe position.
Matthew succumbed to his wounds before aid could
reach him. The Medal of Honor series is a production
of Veterans Radio. Military veterans touch everyone's
life. I'm guessing right now you're thinking
of a veteran, a close friend, relative. Maybe
it's you. Even the toughest of us sometimes need
help but don't know where to turn for support.
You don't need special training to help a veteran
in your life. We can all help someone going through
a difficult time. Learn how you can be there
for veterans. Visit veteranscrisisline .net.
Veteranscrisisline .net. A message from the U
.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. And we're
back here on Veterans Radio and my next guest
is Mark Schmitz. And Mark is the founder of an
organization called the Freedom 13. And I'm going
to bring Mark on the line right now to tell us
what that means. So Mark, welcome to Veterans
Radio. Well, thank you for having me on. Well,
thank you for coming on the program. I'm really
excited to talk to you about your organization.
So let's tell our audience a little bit about
the significance of the Freedom 13. What does
that mean? Sure, we organized our 501c3 back
in early 2022. We created this organization,
unfortunately, because of the death of our son
Jared. He was a Marine Lance Corporal who was
sent off to Kabul, Afghanistan during the final
days of the withdrawal and was killed tragically
at the Abbey Gate when we lost 13. service members
that day to a suicide bomber. Jared, that was
his first deployment and he came from Jordan
where he was deployed originally and came in
to assist with that evacuation. So once we got
that terrible knock on the door that our son
was one of the deceased, we knew very quickly
that we had to carry on his legacy. and the legacy
of the 13 that we lost that day. And the Freedom
13 has been formed to aid in the mental health
of all the veterans that are still with us. We
wanted to make sure that Jared's memory lived
on forever. And we're doing this by way of making
recreational retreat camps. We are starting in
Missouri. In Bourbon, Missouri, we purchased
171 acres. And each of these camps will be on
at least 100 acres of land because nature in
and of itself can be very therapeutic. Each camp
will consist of at least 13 homes that we will
build on the properties. And they'll basically
operate like an Airbnb for veterans and law enforcement.
So basically any gun carrying first responder.
They come out for a week. with their families.
I think that's a pivotal component because everyone
knows when you're deployed or you send your father
or mother off to work in a police uniform, you
know, they come home and have those invisible
scars that many of us can't even imagine. These
families live through their loved one and the
deployments that they're out on, whether it's
overseas or stateside. And so the family unit
being part of that therapeutic healing is crucially
important. These safe spaces will basically serve
as a great place for other outside organizations
that have a niche for serving in the mental health
realm, you know, serving from PTSD to anxiety,
suicide prevention, service dogs, you name it.
And they can bring their bring their resources
with them to treat the guests that are with us.
And this is strictly voluntary. We don't want
to do, you know, a hardcore type therapeutic
environment here. We want everyone to just kind
of embrace it at their own pace. And while they're
there, you know, it's almost like a vacation,
but yet it's it's also healing. centers as well,
because while they're there, there's going to
be, and I'll give you an example with the Missouri
Freedom Camp. We've got over four and a half
miles of riding and hiking trails. We've got
a stock fishing lake so you can go fishing. We're
putting in a shooting range, which will have
designated shooting time so that they can get
out there and do what they do best and hone in
on their skills again. But they'll be set up
times so that we don't trigger anybody, you know,
with any loud noises. that weren't expected in
that time. So, you know, for example, like on
Tuesdays and Thursdays, we'd have the shooting
ranges open from 10 to noon. And so everybody
that's there would already know ahead of time
that that activity might be going on. We plan
on putting in skeet shooting. We'll have sand
volleyball for some of the younger guys, pickleball
courts, you name it. I mean, it's going to be
just a great. a great place for them to come
and take a knee for a week. They've earned it.
And we want to make sure that these guys can
live to see another day, feel happy about what
they've done. And most importantly, they're going
to be around other guys that have done what they've
done. And by being around the camaraderie there,
I think that's a crucial piece of it as well.
That's very true. That camaraderie is something
that all veterans really need. They just don't
realize it sometimes. But it's so important to
be able to sit around and talk with other veterans
who have been through similar situations that
you have been through. And it just makes you
feel like you're not alone. Because I think so
many veterans, when they come home, they feel
like there's nobody there. you know, to help
them out. It sounds like you're doing just an
incredible job to try and even set up this one
camp and let more or less what you want to really
do with your, you know, your aspirations are
to open one in every state in the country. Is
that right? Ultimately, yes, that's the goal.
I mean, it's our mission is simple, but the task
is monumental. I may have talked more than I
can chew, but we'll find out. I think once this
first camp is is completely finished and we can,
you know, Fox News, for example, I've been on
Fox News National many times. They've told me
they'll send a crew out to cover a story on it
once it's completed. And we hope that once people
can kind of see it, feel it, touch it, you know,
that sort of thing, that this will start to snowball
and grow in popularity. I know there's other
organizations that do things a little similar,
but I don't think to this scale. And so that's...
That's why I think it's so important that we
just get the word out about what we're doing,
not only just to the veterans and the law enforcement
that will benefit from it, but from those people
out there who believe in a mission like this.
It takes an immense amount of support financially,
of course. All charities out there all live and
die off of the community support and that's no
more no different. These are going to be incredibly
expensive to build. you know, my life has now
turned into one gigantic fundraising mission.
So, you know, I welcome the challenge. I mean,
I've always been an entrepreneur, but luckily
for me, I've got a fantastic crew of volunteers
who have really stepped up and, you know, they
believe in the mission and they were never related.
Most of them didn't even know my son personally.
So that means a lot to me that to see these people
get behind us so much and It's going to take
an army, if you will, to make this happen, and
we're slowly growing it. Again, it's just another
great organization out there, much like Camp
Liberty or Freedom River here in Michigan that
are doing similar things on a much smaller scale.
But we know how difficult it is to raise. basically
millions of dollars in order to you know accomplish
this if in your lifetime if we're doing well
even just one a year I think that's kind of kind
of cool but you've got so we are in a bourbon
Missouri where is bourbon Missouri it's roughly
an hour southwest of st. Louis So you just shoot
out Interstate 44, the old Route 66, everyone
knows. And we just head out west about an hour
from St. Louis. It takes about an hour and 20
minutes, I guess, from Lambert Airport in St.
Louis. I live just north of there, about an hour
and 20 minutes. So it's not terribly far for
me to get there. And I try to get down there
at least every couple of weeks. But I've got
a couple of great volunteers that literally live
in the town there. And so they're stopping in
on the property almost daily, you know, getting
stuff done. So we open up the camp to the public.
We try to shoot for every second Saturday of
the month so they can come out and volunteer
and get some things done. And I'll tell you,
I knew we were on the right track when we started
these volunteer days. I had one veteran in particular
who came out. He's been out several times now.
and he came up to me and he says you know I've
attended a lot of veterans camps where they they
help us with with mental health and that sort
of thing and he goes you know this this experience
being out here and not even utilizing the homes
because we only have two of the 13 homes built
so far he said this has meant more to me than
attending a week long you know, hardcore training
session where they go in and try to help you
with the mental health aspect of things. Because
you gave us a mission. You know, when people
come out there, we have a list of items that
need to be done. We task those guys with those
items and they choose what they want to take
on and they work together. You know, just like
being back in the good old days. So, having that
mission, accomplishing that mission just gives
them something to really aim and shoot for. The
takeaway has always been positive. I can only
imagine. I was just thinking about what you were
saying. It's sort of like Habitat for Humanity.
People go out there and they just, everything
kind of in their minds, you know, when they get
out there, it's kind of fuzzy, but everything
becomes more and more focused. And that they
know that they're again, they're part of a team.
And that's something that so many people maybe
they, you know, our civilian audience may not
understand is that while you're in the service
or if you're a policeman, fireman or always other,
you know, immediate urgent response between people
is that you're always part of a team. And I think
that that's something that's great that you're
that you're promoting out there. You've got some
really interesting fundraising events that are
coming up. Can you tell us about a couple of
those? Well, sure. We've cherished birthday.
He'd be 25 years old this year. It's coming up
on February 25th. So we're having a big birthday
bash at our local town square pub and grill and
just inviting everybody to come out just because
they want to sing happy birthday to a hero. But
two days after that is our gala. It's going to
be held at the Foundry Arts Center in St. Charles.
We have a guest speaker coming in from North
Carolina. He's a 17 year veteran Special Forces
Green Beret who had a personal, let's say a personal
experience with suicide and he's still here to
talk about it. And this guy gives us the most
incredible, incredibly powerful speech that I
think everybody needs to hear about veteran suicide.
I've saw him give a speech in Texas and it blew
my mind. So he's coming in on his own dime to
to be our keynote speaker, which will be huge.
We've got a more fun event coming up June six.
It's our first backyard ultra marathon. Everybody
signs up comes out runs 4 .16 miles, they have
an hour to do it. The sooner you get done, the
more rest you get because at the start of the
next hour, you get to do it all over again. What
I'm going to do. You're going to run twenty four
point one six miles. And then let's say you finish
in 30 minutes. Well, you got 30 minutes to rest
because at the top of the next hour you get to
start all over. And that happens over and over
and over until there's literally one person left
to finish. Oh, OK. So you're just going to run.
You're just running everybody into the ground.
Well, I'll tell you, it's it's not so much you're
racing against other people. You're you're really
racing against yourself because you want to see
how far can you actually physically mentally
push yourself you know to to make it and i've
got runners that are coming in from all over
the country and like one gentleman for example
he was part of the world marathon he ran seven
marathons and seven days on seven different continents
i mean it was so i will safely be sitting in
a side by side i will not be participating i've
got knee injuries but I barely made the one mile
run in basic training. Well, it's actually being
it was put on by a Marine. He just got out recently
and he approached me and said, Hey, can we can
we do this? And he owns a local brewery called
Muddy Banks. And he says, I'd love to have an
ultramarathon on your property. So that's the
neat, unique thing about it is we're going to
actually have this race on the Missouri Freedom
Camp property. So It'll be great. It could go
on for days. It could go on, you know, literally
a week. They'll run until nobody's left. It seems
like a great way to get, you know, if all those
runners were to get sponsors to support them.
Wow, that could be a pretty good fundraiser right
there. Oh, absolutely. We've already raised quite
a bit of sponsorship money there. I like the
idea of having it on the camp. It just gets more
eyes on it and people can actually see it for
what it is. But Then we've got another huge event
coming up in August on the 15th called the Angels
of Abbey Gate Memorial Ride. We've been doing
this every year since we lost the 13 at Abbey
Gate. And this is starting to become a mini version
of Sturgis in the St. Louis area. We had almost
a thousand participants last year and we fully
anticipate probably even the bigger attendance
this year. So there's 13 different launch points.
The furthest one away right now is Indiana. Everybody
rides in from their start point. They rally at
one point. In this case, it's a local mall that
went out of business, so there's plenty of parking.
They rally there, and then we get a police escort
to Lakeside 370 Park. We're going to have a live
band and food trucks and whatnot, and just some
great speeches celebrating the lives of those
that made the ultimate sacrifice. Again, it's
just another great awareness event and it's gone
very, very well every single year and it continues
to grow. I'm dumbfounded here as I'm trying to
figure this out. I mean, obviously it's a very,
very worthwhile cause. And just for our audience's
sake, we're talking with Mark Schmitz. He's the
founder of the Freedom 13. And it's designed
to honor not only his son, Jared, who was killed,
but the other 12 along with him at Abbey Gate
in Kabul in 2021, I believe. And they just want
to help. everybody all the veterans first responders
that they can and I really admire your courage
for trying you know for doing this and I'm hoping
that you've been able to line up some corporate
sponsors or somebody that's listening today on
our program will reach out and contact you and
if they did how do they go about doing that if
we wanted to donate money what do we do sure
so actually what we set up similar to like what
tunnels to towers does They have their $11 a
month campaign because of the 11 looks like towers,
right? So we have a $13 a month giving campaign
just because that's our number. We lost 13 that
day. And what we ask for from the general public
across the country is to consider signing up
for $13 a month. You sign up one time and the
money comes out every single month until you
no longer want to do it. There's no commitment.
You can cancel whenever you need to. Some people
have signed up for five dollars a month, some
have signed up for 50. You know, it's whatever
you can afford. And we try to make it affordable
because this is a volume mission. You know, you
get a thousand people donating a small amount.
It adds up very, very quickly. And to be honest,
we spent four days down in Tennessee meeting
with Gary Sinise and the Gary Sinise Foundation.
And I talked to them at great length about the
financial aspects of nonprofits. he said their
number one donor base is quote unquote the little
people you know it's the small donations but
on a large scale and that's that's pretty much
it makes sense because that's the oil that keeps
the machine running and then your legacy donors
you know both alive and deceased those donations
are huge and of course corporate donors and sponsors
are always pivotal so they can go to thefreedom13
.org to read more about our our organizations,
a back history of my son, myself, my wife, what
we're trying to do and all the events that we
have coming up. There's always sponsorship opportunities
and any larger organizations that really want
to get behind, you know, what we're trying to
do, feel free to reach out to me personally.
We're not big enough yet that when you go to
the website, you get me. So phone numbers, emails,
it all goes to me. Well, it's always good to
have a face on these organizations. It's a really
nice looking website. It's easily maneuverable,
I guess you could say. They've got a lot of cool
swag in their shop as part of their fundraiser.
And I have a feeling that we're going to be seeing
more and more of the Freedom 13 hats and things
around the country as you start to expand this
whole thing. I think it's cool. I hope so. I
mean, it's it's my new mission in life. And,
you know, people say, I hope your son is proud
or you think your son's proud of you. I said,
no, nothing can ever compare to how proud I am
of him. So he's why I'm doing this. And I'll
never stop. Well, you know, it's. Mark, we're
really, we're very fortunate. You know, people
don't seem to realize this. We're very fortunate
that there are people like you and Larry and
some of the other folks that are out there that
are trying to do whatever they can to help these
veterans that are coming home from these, you
know, conflicts that, you know, politicians get
us into war. They don't fight them, unfortunately.
And then, you know, and then they bring us back
and sometimes I'm not going to go there. Sometimes
we don't get sometimes we don't get the support
that we really need and it's great that people
are stepping forward and doing this and you know
offering a veteran community of men and women
you know who really are putting their lives on
the line every single day and you know we're
we're trying to my thought is that you know you
guys are trying to reward them with these retreats
where they can go and they can just calm down
and just you know feel safe. I think that's one
of the big things that so many veterans need
to have happen to them when they get back from
wherever they were whenever they were is they
need to find some place that's safe for them
and safe for them to bring their families to
or safe for them to bring their friends to and
sit around and shoot the breeze and you know
Find out that you know what everybody went through
and that they weren't alone in this You know
big adventure of their life and that they're
they've got this place as I mentioned before
that's just the safety to me is is the big deal
because some of these men and women are such
anxiety and You know these traumatic brain injuries
and post -traumatic stress and everything else.
I think they're they're so much more comfortable
around their own kind You know, psychologists
and psychiatrists can do wonderful things, but
most of them haven't been there. And what you're
offering, and I think it's going to be a great,
great opportunity. I can't wait to see the first
one and then the next one and then the next one.
I think you've got a big task in front of you,
but I think it's going to be really cool. But
I think that not only, you know, them having
a good experience and coming out a little bit
more mentally strong is obviously important,
but at the same time, to remind them that it's
okay to enjoy life again. And being out there,
I've not yet met a single person that's been
out to the camp that didn't enjoy themselves.
And even if I had them working and sweating,
they still, you know, because there was that
mission driven... focused that day. They loved
it. You know, they walk away with some new calluses
on their hands and maybe a little sweaty and
tired, but they thoroughly enjoyed the time they
got to spend out there and the people they got
to beat around and we're not even open yet. So
that's the exciting part for me is that we're
already starting to get there and it hasn't even
technically even opened for business yet. So,
you know, I can't wait to get this thing. fully
launched and, God willing, hopefully through
this gala and whatnot, we can raise enough funds
and to try to make sure that we can get this
thing going as quickly as possible. Everybody
that is involved in my organization, including
myself, are all volunteers. Nobody gets paid
for anything that we're doing. And that's hugely
important because we want every dollar that we
raise to be able to fund this whole thing and
get it launched as quickly as possible. Well,
I'm wishing you the best of luck. Please let
me know when you're ready for your big dedication.
And we will, obviously, we would love to help
promote that. The organization is thefreedom13
.org. It's never forget. It's dedicated to Mark's
son, Jared, and the other 12 soldiers and Marines
that were, unfortunately, were killed at the
Abbey Gate in Kabul in 2021. make this a success.
I wish you the best of luck. Well, thank you
so much for giving us a voice that's so crucially
needed to get the word out. So thank you. That's
our job. Thank you, Mark. I look forward to talking
to you again. We're going to take a thank you.
We're going to do a real quick promo here. As
I mentioned last week or the week before, the
Medal of Honor Society is coming to Detroit.
at the end of September this year. And so my
partner Jim Falzone was talking to one of the
surviving Medal of Honor people who are going
to be there. So here is Jim right now. The Congressional
Medal of Honor Society Convention will be held
in Detroit from September 29th to October 3rd
of 2026, featuring the largest gathering of living
Medal of Honor recipients. It brings together
as many as 60 living Medal of Honor recipients
for a series of public and private events aimed
at sharing their heroic stories and promoting
the values of the Medal of Honor, such as commitment,
integrity, courage, sacrifice, citizenship, and
patriotism. This event will also include community
engagement activities allowing recipients to
connect with the local Metro Detroit students
veterans and active military members. This convention
represents a unique opportunity for the City
of Detroit and surrounding area to honor its
military heroes and foster a spirit of patriotism
and community engagement. You can learn more
about this upcoming convention at medalofhonoredetroit
.com. You can go there to support it with financial
resources and volunteer support. Let me tell
you about one of these men, James Livingston.
He grew up in rural Georgia at a time when the
area was still recovering from desperate economic
times. He went on to Auburn University in Alabama.
He was admitted to the Naval Reserve Officers
Training Corps. That's NROTC. It allowed him
to prepare for the future and his education and
ultimately become a Marine officer. He earned
a bachelor's of science and engineering and went
on to do two combat tours in Vietnam. It was
the events on May 2nd 1968 in the hamlet of Dao
Do that would define and place him in a military
history. He was a captain commanding marines
in a brutal engagement deeply entrenched in North
Vietnam forces. The fight was savage and the
terrain offered almost no cover. Captain Livingston
repeatedly led assaults across open rice paddies
swept by enemy fire, personally destroying enemy
positions, rallying the marines, evacuating the
wounded under fire, and refusing medical evacuation
himself despite serious wounds. For these actions
he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Livingston's
military career continued. He retired as a major
general and he became a vocal advocate for veterans
and improved military readiness. He co -authored
a book called Noble Warrior, a compelling account
not only of his upbringing but the fight that
focused him into history. Through these deployments,
Livingston continued to have a strong family
life, and to his daughters he is remembered not
as a general, but as a father, and to his Marines
he is remembered not as a distant figure, but
a mentor. You can learn more by going to the
Congressional Medal of Honor Society site, cmohs
.org. And remember to visit medalofhonoredetroit
.com. That was Jim Falzone talking about the
Medal of Honor convention that's going to be
coming up in Detroit at the end of September.
And we're really excited because we're hoping
to be down there, obviously, and recording many,
many more of these stories. We do a Medal of
Honor segment every week here on Veterans Radio.
And we need to upgrade it a little bit. There
are now a little bit over 3 ,500 men who have
received the Medal of Honor, only one woman.
But it's a story that we need to tell. And really,
I don't know. Every one of these Medal of Honor
recipients that we've had the privilege of talking
to over the last 20 years have been the... Most
of them are humble. They say, you know, they're
not the heroes. It's always the... the men and
women that didn't make it back that are their
true heroes. But I think if you listen to our
program over the next nine months, we're going
to be talking more and more about Medal of Honor
recipients, kind of try to give you the backstory
on some of these, a little bit more of a narrative
on them. And I think it's going to be really
interesting. We're very pleased that they've
asked us to participate with them in Detroit.
And you know, it's one of those things that I'm
just really Excited to do because there's a lot
of things that are going on out there. I want
you know, we were talking today briefly about
Just these people that are out trying to Set
up these retreats set up care set up anything
they can to help these returning veterans You
know assimilate back into the to regular society
to figure out a way to handle the traumatic events
that have occurred in their lives. That's something
that we want to make sure that we continue to
promote here on Veterans Radio. So if you have
an organization that's got something out there
that's designed to help veterans and their families
and first responders, let us know. We'd love
to have you on the program to promote your organization
and let people know what is happening in your
area to support the veteran community. You know,
this is not a one -man show here at Veterans
Radio. We have been talking with you for 23 years
almost now. We're very excited to continue on
with this. Somebody mentioned earlier this morning,
I was talking to him, he says, hell, I'm gonna
be 80 this year. I'm going, oh my gosh, oh my,
that's really frightening when you think about
it. But we've got our mission here, so we've
got to go. God bless America's coming up with
Johnny Fortune. This is Dale Thromberry for all
of us at Veterans Radio. You are dismissed. God
bless America Land that I love Stand beside her
And guide her Through the night with a light
from above From the mountains to the prairies
To the oceans white with foam God bless America,
my home sweet home Eureka!