WENTZVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A Marine from Missouri who was among 13 service members killed in the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan was an “amazing young man” who decided early in his high school years to join up.
Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz of Wentzville was 20 when he died Thursday.
Funeral arrangements are still pending.
Mark Schmitz told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that his son decided on the Marines around his freshman or sophomore year at Fort Zumwalt South High School, where he graduated in 2019.
Mark Schmitz said his son enlisted the same year and embraced the calling.
Original Story
WENTZVILLE, Mo. (AP) — One of the 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan was a Marine who grew up in the St. Louis area.
KMOX Radio reports that 20-year-old Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz of Wentzville was among those killed Thursday.
His father, Mark Schmitz, says Marines came to his home at 2:40 a.m. Friday to confirm his son’s death.
Schmitz says his son was among a group of Marines sent back to Afghanistan to assist with evacuation efforts.
The bombing was blamed on Afghanistan’s offshoot of the Islamic State group, a lethal enemy of both the Taliban and the West.
