Army Specialist Justin B. Schmidt

He loved his friends, he loved his family, he was always the life of the party, so to speak. I know a lot of people say that but he actually was the life of the party: you know, he’d walk into a room and, you know, everybody just—the mood would just change, and it would be for the better.

And I noticed after he had gone into the military it definitely made him a better person—he was a great person, but it made him a better person, going into the military—and I don’t know whether it was the experiences he had being stationed in Germany or being in Iraq, but every time I got the chance to speak with him on the phone, whether it was in the middle of the night because of the time difference, or he would wait and call us here in the States at a normal hour for us, you know you could always tell the great person that he had become. I do wish that he was here today, to see, you know, what kind of man that he would’ve become after his service to his country.

He was just a very good person, he was good to all his friends and family, and he’s definitely missed. Every single year, we celebrate his life out at the causeway, and you know every single year you never run out of things to say about him—he was that kind of person that, you know, there’s so many memories and so many stories that people have, each and every person that came across him, that every single year when we get together, it seems like there’s a new part of him that everybody finds out about.

Which is nice, it’s very nice, you know: it’s been 15 years and still keeping his memory alive and fresh and, you know, the stories and just the laughs when talking and thinking about him.

It was a shock. He, you know, was looking forward to it. Justin allowed me, and honored me, with getting Stephanie’s engagement ring. And he took his leave in January of 2004 and I had sent the ring to him. And, so, he had given it to Stephanie, they got engaged, and while on leave there with her, he was I believe 22 days or something close to that they had been making plans for the wedding and whatnot, and so it came—he called here and I had been out of town and got back and found out that he had, you know, they had said, “You’re not leaving just yet.”

And, so, I took it upon myself to send out letters, because I had already sent out wedding invitations from here to people—to a list he had given me—and so I sent everyone notices that you know it was to be postponed—it wasn’t to be canceled, it was to be postponed—and that we would notify them, and, you know, Justin, it was out of his hands.

We were all very disappointed, I mean, I had my tickets for Germany—his brother had his passport—we were very excited to be able to see him, because I hadn’t seen Justin since after his graduation from Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

And, he had come up here for a little bit, and we were in Michigan for my husband’s nephew’s graduation, and that was the last time I had seen Justin prior to his deployment to Baumholder in Germany. So, you know, we were all looking forward to seeing him, we had made plans, and then everything kind of blew up, and there’s no way you can tell the Army “No, I’m not going” or that “I’m not going to stay,” so yeah. He was disappointed.

He asked me if I would please send flowers to apologize, and it was a blow to all of us of course, and of course my fears—you know, that he had made it through the time that he had been there and I just, I wanted him out of there, as does any mother with their child. And after he had called—which was around the middle of April—it was a few weeks later that he had been killed.

He was a wonderful, caring person. He was—you know, always fought for the underdog. God, I’d like to think that part of his family life had a lot to do with it: his structure that he had, the support that he had. We didn’t let him have any down time, any idle time.

And he was your average kid, average teenager, he did get in trouble, he did cut school, but he wasn’t a bad kid. It was normal, I guess. But I’d like to think it was the family values, the way he was raised, and the family that he had—we always encouraged him and Jason in anything and everything that they did that it wasn’t a win situation, it wasn’t a loss situation, it was the fact that you participated and that you did the best you could and that you tried, and that was the important thing.

It’s such a loss. We’re all just, you know, so deeply, deeply affected by this. And it’s, you know, a terrible thing when you have to visit someone in a cemetery, and that you have to bury a child.

That's—you know? We’re all, all affected by this. It’s affected—like I said, we’re all affected by it and it’s a great loss for all of us to lose someone like Justin, and to know that, you know, it’s going to be a while, hopefully, before we see him again, but we think of him, and we love him, and we miss him. We all miss him.