January 28, 2025 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, retired U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Michael Schlitz enlisted in March 1996 and served in several positions including Rifleman and Platoon Sergeant. While in Baghdad, Iraq on February 27, 2007, Mike and his crew were on a road-clearing mission when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED). Here's his story of tragedy—and overcoming.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And if you want to listen to our show, go
to the iHeartRadio app or listen to the podcast well
wherever you pick them up up. Next, a story kindly
submitted to us by the Veterans History Project at the
(00:33):
Atlanta History Center, we will be hearing from Army ranger
Michael Schlitz, who served in Iraq.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I went in the military pretty much right out after
high school. You know, honestly, I was a little immature.
I knew if I went to college I was probably
going to struggle. I'd probably party a little too hard
and not really pay enough attention to the classes, and
I really didn't want to set myself up for failure.
Plus I was just kind of floating around life at
the time. I didn't really have the direction and really
(01:03):
an idea of what I wanted to do. And my
father had been a Navy veteran. My brother was already
in the Army, and at the time I didn't know it,
but he was about to go to Haiti for Operation
Uphold Democracy. So my goal was to come in the military,
do a few years, maybe come back out, go to college,
and then figure out what I want to do. Came
(01:27):
in the Army in March in nineteen ninety six, did
my training here at Fort Benning, Georgia, Basic and ait
pretty much right off the get go of it, I
just fell in love with it. I liked the discipline.
I like the routine. I like the everyday challenges. I mean,
you pretty much woke up every day knowing what you're
going to do, but at the same time, there was
(01:47):
new levels of responsibility and challenges constantly thrown at you
to kind of keep you on your toes and make
you react.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
And to me, there's nothing else like it.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
We do talk a lot about the teamwork and coming
together as a team to uplished a mission, but you know, honestly,
the military has a lot of eye in there too,
Like you have to outperform your peers in order to
be promoted able to go to those schools, and I
always challenged myself to be better than those around me.
(02:16):
My first assignment after completing my training was one five
Infantry out of Fort Lewis, which was part of the
twenty fifth Infantry Division. About a year and a half
being at Fort Lewis, I got picked to go to Korea,
and then after Korea went to first of the five
oh second at one hundred and first, and right away
(02:37):
when I got to the hundred and first, you know,
I just started plugging away. I was a specialist at
the time, and I asked him, you know, can I
go to a pre ranger. I want to go to
ranger school? What do I need to go? And they're like, well,
we got to send.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
You to assault school. First.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
The very last thing you do is a twelve mile
foot march, and you know it's self release.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
You got thirty five pounds on your back.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
You have three hours and it's an individual task. You know,
it's your own. Yeah, there's other people out there, but
it's really on you. And I ended up coming in
first place for that, and so I did my other classmates.
And so the next day was graduation. My first arm platoons,
aren't I come to the graduation? And I guess it
(03:16):
was pretty normal that when you graduate the course, I'd
give you a four day pass to say, hey, you know,
good job, then come back to work. And my company,
my infantry company, was doing a ten mile company race
the next day, and my platoons aren't, said, you know, first, aren't.
Would like to give you the four day pass, but
(03:36):
we're having this race. We need to introduce you to
the rest of the guys in the company. We understand
you did twelve miles, but would you come out and
do this run tomorrow? And you know, I'm you know,
being a young guy, and you know.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Wanting to prove myself. I said, of course.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
So I showed up the next day and I ended
up taking third place. I can remember my my platoons
aren't in first. Aren't again pretty much the only guys
who know who I am, pulling me off to the
side and said, oh, by the way, on.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Monday, you start pre ranger.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
So I've always been a pretty lean guy, so going
into reindeer school, you know, at five six, I only
weigh one hundred and fifty five pounds.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I can remember before.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Going to school them saying, hey, you need to put
as much fat on your body as you can, because
you know, once you're done burning through the fat, you're
gonna start burning through your muscle. And it, sure enough
happened to pretty much all of us, and it has
a very distinct ammonious smell. And at the time we
had the old bedus with the brown shirts, and.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Everybody's shirts would turn orange.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
It was because when you burn the muscle and it
puts off the secretion and everything, it would almost.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Bleach out your shirts.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
And so two months later when I came out of
the swamps of Florida and they brief you, and it's
the first time I actually had stepped on the scale
the entire time, and I weigh one hundred.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And fifteen pounds.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I started at one hundred and fifty five pounds, So
in just over two months, you know, I lost forty pounds,
and for being somebody who was lean, that was actually
quite a bit. And you know, leading up to graduation,
those four days are actually allowed to start putting food
in your system. And I can remember eating pints of
Hazen Dazs ice cream and you know, full pizzas, and
(05:12):
I mean you would just eat and eat and eat,
and then.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
When you could, you try to get some rest too.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
And so a graduation I had actually put on in
those four days, had got myself back up to one
hundred and thirty five pounds. But it was like all
gut your eyes are still black. They're sunk it in,
your cheeks are sunk it in.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
You're just reil looking.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
You're very weak looking, but you have this little pot
belly thing going on, you know, under the uniform. But
the majority of the people who do go to school
within that that point, we'll probably lose anywhere from twenty
five to about fifty pounds, depending on how big you are.
I went back to the hundred and first I made sergeant.
Shortly after getting back, I was a team leader. And
(05:52):
then the big Army decided about it's time to go
back to Korea, and so packs my bags went back
to Korea for another year. You're always within your one year,
you're always allowed to take a little vacation time. At
some point they called mid to or leave, and so
I was married at the time, and so my wife
had come over and we just had just south of
(06:13):
the peninsula, there's a little island. So we had gone
down to the island for a few days, flown back
into Soul. We're having dinner and the next day we're
due to flight to Bali, Indonesia for a few days.
And we're sitting there having dinner, watching the football game
on the TV and we saw the first plane hit
the tower, and we actually thought they had changed the
channel on us, thinking they took the football game off
(06:34):
and then put on a movie. And so we're all
kind of yelling, you know, because it was kind of
an American bar and soul like put the game back on.
And then we saw the second plane hit and we realized, okay,
something's not right. So you know, we didn't even finish
our dinner, you know, we paid our check, jumped in
a cab, went back to our hotel where I had
my work cell phone, and it was like, yeah, vacations over,
(06:57):
time to come home.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
The vacation is over, indeed and over for so many
of us, especially those who serve in uniform. And we're
listening to Michael Schlitz tell his story, his service story.
By the way, so much of his family, so many
members of his family, had served. And that is the
case throughout this country that military service runs through the family.
(07:20):
When we come back, more of Michael Schlitz's story here
on our American Stories. Here are to our American stories.
We bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith,
and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that
need to be told, but we can't.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Do it without you.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
free to make. If you love our stories in America
like we do, please go to our American Stories dot
com and click the donate button. Give a little, give
a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot com. And we continue with
(08:08):
our American stories and with Michael Schlitz's story. We just
heard about the day that changed America nine to eleven,
and that's September eleventh, two thousand and one. And let's
take it back to Michael.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Eventually moved up to a staff position running the resources
for all Ranger school. Sometimes it was air assets, but
all the ranges land, pretty much everything except for AMMO.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
We had an AMMO guy who did that.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
When it was time for me to leave, I called
up my branch manager and said, hey, you know what's
the next deploying unit. He goes, well, the next next
guys to leave his tenth Mountain division.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
So that's where I want to go.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
And so I mean to me, there there was no
other options.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It was this is what I want to go do.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
And since I hadn't had the chance to really deploy.
I knew I wanted to be on the next chalcol
One out So I reported to tenth Mountain Division in
March of six, and we deployed in August of six.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
So our sector was the southwest side of Baghdad.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
The media at the time called it the Sunni Triangle
or the Triangle of death. You know, when we first invaded,
you know, the insurgents really didn't know how to fight us,
and as they studied us and found out our operating procedures,
then they could figure out how to attack. It's a weakness,
it's just like we do for them and then are
wounded and are killed in actions had doubled, and so
(09:35):
in six we have what we call the surge. And
basically the US answer to that was to just triple
the number of US forces we had in erect.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
At the time and do a big sweep across the country.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And that obviously in an area like that to it's
littered with roadside bombs, IED's improvise explosive devices.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
The more people you put in an area, the more
that can actually get injured.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
So we actually you did see are killed in action
and our wounded in action triple in numbers.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But we were making a big push.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
We were finding those IDs, we were finding the insurgent sales,
so we were making a huge difference.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
It just it came at a cost.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
We had huge up armored vehicles. We had one that
was called the Husky. It was like a mind detecting vehicle.
And these vehicles were actually made for Africa, so they
could drive over minefields and have the mines explode, and
the bottom of vehicles instead of being flat like a
lot of the US vehicles, they had a v haul,
so they came down into a point like a boat,
and what would happen is when the rounds would come up,
(10:36):
they would shatter a way versus coming straight up to
the armor.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And so we had mind detecting vehicles.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
We had troop carrying vehicles that just a little bit
heavy armored so we could have some firepower on top.
And then we'd have the one that had the huge claw.
So if we found wire we found something that looked
kind of suspicious, that claw would go way forward to
the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Had a camera on it.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
We could interrogate it without ever leaving the.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Security of our vehicle.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
And there were signs where we would take three hits
in a single day. Three IED's that we weren't able
to spot them. They'd detonate on us, and as long
as our vehicles would keep rolling, we just kept rolling
on with the mission.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
We didn't stop. You know.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Then February twenty seventh, two thousand and seven, came about,
so like any other day, woke up, you know, got
the guys ready, got the vehicles prepped, got them prepped,
brought him in, We did our briefings. They knew exactly
it was going to take us about fifteen hour patrol
that day to get through all the routes that we
had planned. And then you know, we loaded up and
(11:44):
we had been on the road about three hours and
we came across one of the routes. I believe it
was rob Primus. It was actually a dead end road.
And typically when you plan your route, you never covered
the same spot more than once because if you do,
you get blown up because.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
They can predict you.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Unfortunately, the dead end road there's one way down all
the way back, and we had taken our time, and
anytime we're looking for the IDs, you're only going about
two miles per hour, so it's a creep crawling obviously,
why you need that heavy armored vehicles Because you're moving
so slow, it's an easy target. And we got down
to the end of the road. It's a very rural area.
(12:24):
There was a lot of canals and farmland and not
the open desert that.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
People think of when they think of I racked.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Once we started coming back up, we picked up the
pace a little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I want to say.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
We were probably going about between five and ten miles
an hour, so it's not like we were speeding up
the road, but we weren't creep crawling along either. And
then I heard the blast. I can remember hearing the boom,
and before I could even get like a choice for
a letter word out of my mouth, I was hitting
the ground. And you know, when you go through these
training and you go through all this stuff as a leader,
(12:56):
you always want to just pause for a second and
just get a quick battle damage assessments so you can
make a quick decision.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
It can't be long. It's just a quick pause.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
And as I did that, I looked at my vehicle
and I really at the time didn't see anything out
of the unusual about it.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
But I didn't see it was my guys.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
So I just immediately got up to run back for
my vehicle, and as I got closer to the vehicle,
that's when I could feel the flames hit me in
the face and I realized I was on fire. And
because I felt like it was in the torso area,
because it was just hit me in the face so bad,
I decided to drop my IBA or my protective vest,
and so I kind of just tossed it real quick,
(13:34):
got down and started to roll and I only got
about a roll and a half in and the heat
was so intense that it.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Basically locked up my muscles.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
But I definitely was like, Okay, this is it for me.
This is where my life ends. I'm going to die here,
you know, face down on the ground and IRAQ him.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
You know what am I going to do? I can't move,
you know, and I'm on fire.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
And about the time those those those emotions and those
thoughts were coming over my body, I could hear my
as you home for me.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Before I knew it, They're hit me with that fire extinguisher.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
And it went from that extreme heat to the extreme cooling.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And I don't think I'll ever.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Probably find the words to describe that feeling of that
cooling sensation and the relief it provided me, like almost instantly.
But then it also gave me, you know, that emotional
kind of aspect where came maybe I'm not going to
die here on the ground that if they got to
me and I feel like this right now, then maybe
I still have a fighting chance to go on from there.
(14:30):
One of my young sergeants, Sarnt Redmond, wasn't one of
my best sergeants. I actually had plans on kicking them
out of the army for some other bad decisions he made.
But two of the young guys were going to grab
me and start dragging me off the road, and he
stopped him, and he's like, no, you can't do that.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
You have to get the spine board. If you drag him,
you'll kill him.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
And the only analogy I can really use, or the
way to explain it is if.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
You think about baked chicken. You just pulled that baked chicken.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Out of the oven, you know, and how the meat
and this everything just kind of scups out of the bone. Well,
I basically had just been burned alive, So had they
drugged me, everything would have just scupped off and they
probably would have killed me. The guys were talking to me,
you know, reassuring me, and I was getting a little
annoyed with it. I can't remember telling them just to
shut up. I got this, don't worry about it. And
(15:19):
before I knew it, I could start to hear the
chopper coming in. The helicopter the metavact was coming in.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
You know.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
All the guys would kind of lightly lay over me,
not enough to irritate the burns or anything, but just
protect me from the water rush of the bird landing.
And they loaded me up. I remember there was a
female flight medic. She asked me, my name is social.
I know, I got my name out, no idea about
the social and the megs just kind of kicked in.
(15:49):
Later on I found out they they pretty much had
to start working on me right away and blot I
Later years, about two years after it happened, I actually
got to meet my surgeon. It was a Air Force colonel,
and he said that, you know, of his two years
that he almost spent over there, they they had never
been attacked except for the one time I was on
the table and they got a rocket attack. So things
(16:11):
were shaken and stuff, and he said, what he could
remember was my legs is everything above my boot was
in really really bad condition. And I I don't remember
what the procedure was called, but basically there was a
procedure they weren't supposed to do on burns. Brooke Army
Medical Center is like the Burn Hospital, one of the
best hospitals for burns, and there was a procedure that
(16:33):
they weren't supposed to do on any burn patients, and
he ended up doing it. I mean, it was the
only way to save my legs, because had that happen,
they would have had to take my legs too. So
you know, here's a guy who not only saved my life,
cause I was constantly flat lining and having all kinds
of issues, and the prognosis I was even going back
(16:53):
to the unit was I wasn't gonna make it that
I was just too far gone at that point.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
And you were listening to Army ranger Michael Schlitz tell
one heck of his story, and he deploys to Iraq.
He doesn't get the easy space, and there isn't really
much of an easy space or place there, but he
gets the sony triangle. Then you overlay the surge and
particularly the insurgents use of minds that actually develop their
(17:21):
own name called improvised explosive devices, because that's what they were,
and his job was to find them, which meant he
and his units will go out at a crawl and
be open targets for not only these devices, but all
all kinds of attacks, and all to protect fellow soldiers
from these IEDs and ultimately to secure the area. When
(17:45):
we come back, more of this remarkable story, the story
of how Michael Schlitz comes back from a near death
experience here on our American story and we continue here
(18:09):
with our American stories and the story of Army ranger
Michael Schlitz. Let's pick up where Michael last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Luckily, they stabilize me and pretty much sent me to
Brooke Army Medical Center and got there on to March
of seven, immediately put into ICU.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I've spent six months in.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
ICU, multiple skin grafts. At that point they had to
make the call to go and take the hands so
I didn't lose the hands from the explosion.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
I actually lost the hands through the burns.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Like mentally, I knew, I knew how to walk and stuff,
but I had so much muscle damage and so much
weakness that when I would go to get up to walk,
like initially, I would just kind of crumble. I couldn't walk,
So they had to build that up. So, you know,
sometimes it was just today, all we're going to do
is stand up out of bed.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
The next day, you know, we're going.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
To do two steps, and now we're going to walk
to the door.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Like one of the ways they motivated me is my brother.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
And my niece were down visiting and they allowed me
to walk to the ICU doors and my niece was
sit on the ground and it's really the first time
she got to see me too, and she didn't recognize me.
And her name's Brina, and I always had a way
I'd always saying and bringing Brina, and so I did
that and she realized it was me, and of course
(19:30):
I had to go back to the room, so they
shut the doors, and then she was upset that she
did get to hang.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Out with me.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
It wasn't until I went to my welcome home ceremony
then I found out that three guys I had my
vehicle all passed away. You know, they didn't want to
tell me when I was in the hospital or going
through recovery because they didn't want me to mentally or
just have it stressed me out to the point where
i'd take a change. After about four months of the
(19:56):
burn warden and still going through it. The only way
they had let me out of the hospitals if I got
a small house on post House close to the hospital,
so if anything happened, I was still nearby. So Mom
and I moved into a small, small, probably maybe seven
hundred square foot home, two bedrooms right on top of
each other. And that's where it's that that timeframe, you know,
(20:18):
I was still probably sleeping sixteen hours a day. I'd
be up, they'd change my bandages, and I'd eat, and
that's pretty much all I know. I'd go to sleep,
wake up, eat, go to sleep, wake up, eat.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
And go sleep.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
And but for Mom, that that was probably some of
the most horrific time, besides just learning about the stuff.
But she had to take it. She had to do
a lot of the won't care. She had to do
all the coke and the cleaning. I wasn't allowed to
sleep on my sheets more than once because of infection,
So I just put all that on her and obviously
she didn't have anybody to help her, so.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
She was doing all that on her own.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And eventually, you know, I got my first prosthetic, and
that night I can remember going home and Mom cooked
and cut all my.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Food up for me.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
But that very first time I was able to feed myself,
and that was huge for me because leading up to
that first protec, I couldn't trust myself, couldn't feed myself,
couldn't take myself to the bathroom. There was really very
little I could do on an average statement myself, and
that affects you mentally. Obviously I contemplated suicide, but you know,
(21:24):
I didn't want to let Mom down, and then you know,
I had my brothers in the army and a lot
of people who visited me, and you never want to
let anybody down. So ultimately, because of that support system
is why I didn't commit suicide. But when I had
that first prospectic give me that little bit of hope,
that little bit of independence. And then shortly after that
I got the second prosthetic, and you know, I just
(21:45):
kind of did on the gost.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Sense, and not that I don't have.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Bad days or you know, take turns here and there,
still I can't say I never saw my life going
in the direction it has. One of the things I
battled with a sense of purpose. You know, my entire
adult life, I was a soldier. I lived for my career.
I would have pretty much everything in my life took
second second string to my career, like I wanted to
(22:10):
be a soldier.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
This is what I do.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And you know, if I mean missing a wedding or
missing somebody's birthday, or missing a big, big event that
if if it was for the military and something I
had thought I had to do, I would always pick
it over everything. And uh, you know, even my marriage,
like I got divorced well before the injury, but I
always put my career.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
It's just it's who I was.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
And now I didn't feel like I could be a
soldier anymore. I felt like, you know, my identity had
been struck for me.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I didn't know what I was going to do, and you.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Know, Mom and I would have conversation like I don't
know what I could do, and I was like, well,
maybe you could do some public speak.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Then I'm like I can't do that, you know, and she,
you know, she.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Would try to guide me, and you know, I couldn't
foresee what where life would take me at the time,
and or or even at you know, falling back on
my career as an instructor giving classes to a few
hundred kids, you know, or soldiers are doing any of
those things. But as they started doing more events, they
would ask me to come speak, and I told my
story more. And I had that opportunity to go over
(23:10):
back to Iraq on three different occasions through a thing
called Operation Proper Exit. And so when I came back,
I just kind of went full in and motivational speaking
and leadership speaking companies, units, nonprofit events, charity events, and
so that's why I do now, and you know, it's
my purpose, it's what I like to do. It keeps
(23:32):
me around both the veteran community, guys who served, whether
it was World War Two up through the current conflicts,
or it's the active duty guys, every branch you can
think of. It just allows me to get around to everybody.
And I've had a great support network. Obviously I didn't
do it on my own. You know, the Brotherhood has
been very very good to me. I mean, whether it
(23:53):
was my guys out of Tenth Mount, the Rangers I
served with you know, guys that you know I was
a private with that still keep in touch with me.
It's a very very tight knit community. And you know,
I'm just I'm a proud Army veteran, you know, you know,
I'm glad I got the chance to serve.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I can picture my life without it.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
But obviously, veterans, you know, it takes a certain mentality
to serve your country. And obviously, after fourteen years of war,
you know, everybody who goes over there comes home a
little different. You know what really kind of bothers me
is when I go in public, I could have three
veterans with me. Two might be suffering from postmatic stress,
(24:38):
one could be have a TBI at traumatic brain injury,
and then there's me and the only one they'll think
is me, and they just forget about these guys. But
those guys' service is no different than mine, you know.
And I have you know, guys that have multiple deployments
always coming up to me and saying, you know, my
you know, my service isn't quite the same. It isn't
(24:59):
like you now, your service is the same as mine.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I had one bad day which changed, you know, this
part of me.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
But the actual service serving your country is no different.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
You know, anybody on any given day.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Can I have a bad day, and I'm what a
bad day looks like. But we don't know enough about
the brain and the way things function to fix the
brain right now. And you can throw mads at it
and you can do different things, but ultimately brain's going
to do what the brain's going to do. But for
somebody like me who has a physical injury, the guys
that have leg injuries, there's always a way to adapt.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Something I can figure out. You know, even before I
have prosthetics.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
I used to take the gatorade bottles, drill hole in
the cap, put the cat back on and feel you know,
I have my drink and I have a straw in there,
so I can carry it myself. So for me, life
is always about adapting and changing and doing stuff. But
when you have a TBI or you have PTS to
the higher functioning levels, you don't have that option.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
You know, you can't control it.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
So they may look what you considered normal, but they're
struggling more so than a lot of the people that
you considered disabled. So I think it's important to stay
in touch with everybody and not fall off the grid.
It's going to be harder for those guys who who
maybe move to those rural communities away from military posts,
away from some of the larger organizations. But in today's society,
(26:25):
and especially with social media, you know in Facebook, I mean,
there's so many veteran groups on Facebook that you can
reach out to, and maybe you don't get to go
up and have dinner with them once a week or
once a month, at least you can communicate or if
you're having some issues somebody to vent to. And nobody
understands a veteran like a veteran.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And a terrific job on the production by Greg Hengler
and a special thanks to Michael Schlitz for sharing his
story about his service and all that happened while he
was on duty in Iraq, losing three of his pals.
He survived, but he lost three of his pals, lost
his hands, and lost so much but gained as much
(27:09):
too back learning about the Brotherhood, learning about the Tenth
Mountain Division, and so many others who helped Michael schlnts
his story the story of so many of our soldiers
who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here on our American stories,
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And if you want to listen to our show, go
to the iHeartRadio app or listen to the podcast well
wherever you pick them up up. Next, a story kindly
submitted to us by the Veterans History Project at the
(00:33):
Atlanta History Center, we will be hearing from Army ranger
Michael Schlitz, who served in Iraq.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I went in the military pretty much right out after
high school. You know, honestly, I was a little immature.
I knew if I went to college I was probably
going to struggle. I'd probably party a little too hard
and not really pay enough attention to the classes, and
I really didn't want to set myself up for failure.
Plus I was just kind of floating around life at
the time. I didn't really have the direction and really
(01:03):
an idea of what I wanted to do. And my
father had been a Navy veteran. My brother was already
in the Army, and at the time I didn't know it,
but he was about to go to Haiti for Operation
Uphold Democracy. So my goal was to come in the military,
do a few years, maybe come back out, go to college,
and then figure out what I want to do. Came
(01:27):
in the Army in March in nineteen ninety six, did
my training here at Fort Benning, Georgia, Basic and ait
pretty much right off the get go of it, I
just fell in love with it. I liked the discipline.
I like the routine. I like the everyday challenges. I mean,
you pretty much woke up every day knowing what you're
going to do, but at the same time, there was
(01:47):
new levels of responsibility and challenges constantly thrown at you
to kind of keep you on your toes and make
you react.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
And to me, there's nothing else like it.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
We do talk a lot about the teamwork and coming
together as a team to uplished a mission, but you know, honestly,
the military has a lot of eye in there too,
Like you have to outperform your peers in order to
be promoted able to go to those schools, and I
always challenged myself to be better than those around me.
(02:16):
My first assignment after completing my training was one five
Infantry out of Fort Lewis, which was part of the
twenty fifth Infantry Division. About a year and a half
being at Fort Lewis, I got picked to go to Korea,
and then after Korea went to first of the five
oh second at one hundred and first, and right away
(02:37):
when I got to the hundred and first, you know,
I just started plugging away. I was a specialist at
the time, and I asked him, you know, can I
go to a pre ranger. I want to go to
ranger school? What do I need to go? And they're like, well,
we got to send.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
You to assault school. First.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
The very last thing you do is a twelve mile
foot march, and you know it's self release.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
You got thirty five pounds on your back.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
You have three hours and it's an individual task. You know,
it's your own. Yeah, there's other people out there, but
it's really on you. And I ended up coming in
first place for that, and so I did my other classmates.
And so the next day was graduation. My first arm platoons,
aren't I come to the graduation? And I guess it
(03:16):
was pretty normal that when you graduate the course, I'd
give you a four day pass to say, hey, you know,
good job, then come back to work. And my company,
my infantry company, was doing a ten mile company race
the next day, and my platoons aren't, said, you know, first, aren't.
Would like to give you the four day pass, but
(03:36):
we're having this race. We need to introduce you to
the rest of the guys in the company. We understand
you did twelve miles, but would you come out and
do this run tomorrow? And you know, I'm you know,
being a young guy, and you know.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Wanting to prove myself. I said, of course.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
So I showed up the next day and I ended
up taking third place. I can remember my my platoons
aren't in first. Aren't again pretty much the only guys
who know who I am, pulling me off to the
side and said, oh, by the way, on.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Monday, you start pre ranger.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
So I've always been a pretty lean guy, so going
into reindeer school, you know, at five six, I only
weigh one hundred and fifty five pounds.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I can remember before.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Going to school them saying, hey, you need to put
as much fat on your body as you can, because
you know, once you're done burning through the fat, you're
gonna start burning through your muscle. And it, sure enough
happened to pretty much all of us, and it has
a very distinct ammonious smell. And at the time we
had the old bedus with the brown shirts, and.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Everybody's shirts would turn orange.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
It was because when you burn the muscle and it
puts off the secretion and everything, it would almost.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Bleach out your shirts.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
And so two months later when I came out of
the swamps of Florida and they brief you, and it's
the first time I actually had stepped on the scale
the entire time, and I weigh one hundred.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And fifteen pounds.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I started at one hundred and fifty five pounds, So
in just over two months, you know, I lost forty pounds,
and for being somebody who was lean, that was actually
quite a bit. And you know, leading up to graduation,
those four days are actually allowed to start putting food
in your system. And I can remember eating pints of
Hazen Dazs ice cream and you know, full pizzas, and
(05:12):
I mean you would just eat and eat and eat,
and then.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
When you could, you try to get some rest too.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
And so a graduation I had actually put on in
those four days, had got myself back up to one
hundred and thirty five pounds. But it was like all
gut your eyes are still black. They're sunk it in,
your cheeks are sunk it in.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
You're just reil looking.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
You're very weak looking, but you have this little pot
belly thing going on, you know, under the uniform. But
the majority of the people who do go to school
within that that point, we'll probably lose anywhere from twenty
five to about fifty pounds, depending on how big you are.
I went back to the hundred and first I made sergeant.
Shortly after getting back, I was a team leader. And
(05:52):
then the big Army decided about it's time to go
back to Korea, and so packs my bags went back
to Korea for another year. You're always within your one year,
you're always allowed to take a little vacation time. At
some point they called mid to or leave, and so
I was married at the time, and so my wife
had come over and we just had just south of
(06:13):
the peninsula, there's a little island. So we had gone
down to the island for a few days, flown back
into Soul. We're having dinner and the next day we're
due to flight to Bali, Indonesia for a few days.
And we're sitting there having dinner, watching the football game
on the TV and we saw the first plane hit
the tower, and we actually thought they had changed the
channel on us, thinking they took the football game off
(06:34):
and then put on a movie. And so we're all
kind of yelling, you know, because it was kind of
an American bar and soul like put the game back on.
And then we saw the second plane hit and we realized, okay,
something's not right. So you know, we didn't even finish
our dinner, you know, we paid our check, jumped in
a cab, went back to our hotel where I had
my work cell phone, and it was like, yeah, vacations over,
(06:57):
time to come home.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
The vacation is over, indeed and over for so many
of us, especially those who serve in uniform. And we're
listening to Michael Schlitz tell his story, his service story.
By the way, so much of his family, so many
members of his family, had served. And that is the
case throughout this country that military service runs through the family.
(07:20):
When we come back, more of Michael Schlitz's story here
on our American Stories. Here are to our American stories.
We bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith,
and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that
need to be told, but we can't.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Do it without you.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
free to make. If you love our stories in America
like we do, please go to our American Stories dot
com and click the donate button. Give a little, give
a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot com. And we continue with
(08:08):
our American stories and with Michael Schlitz's story. We just
heard about the day that changed America nine to eleven,
and that's September eleventh, two thousand and one. And let's
take it back to Michael.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Eventually moved up to a staff position running the resources
for all Ranger school. Sometimes it was air assets, but
all the ranges land, pretty much everything except for AMMO.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
We had an AMMO guy who did that.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
When it was time for me to leave, I called
up my branch manager and said, hey, you know what's
the next deploying unit. He goes, well, the next next
guys to leave his tenth Mountain division.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
So that's where I want to go.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
And so I mean to me, there there was no
other options.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It was this is what I want to go do.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
And since I hadn't had the chance to really deploy.
I knew I wanted to be on the next chalcol
One out So I reported to tenth Mountain Division in
March of six, and we deployed in August of six.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
So our sector was the southwest side of Baghdad.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
The media at the time called it the Sunni Triangle
or the Triangle of death. You know, when we first invaded,
you know, the insurgents really didn't know how to fight us,
and as they studied us and found out our operating procedures,
then they could figure out how to attack. It's a weakness,
it's just like we do for them and then are
wounded and are killed in actions had doubled, and so
(09:35):
in six we have what we call the surge. And
basically the US answer to that was to just triple
the number of US forces we had in erect.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
At the time and do a big sweep across the country.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And that obviously in an area like that to it's
littered with roadside bombs, IED's improvise explosive devices.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
The more people you put in an area, the more
that can actually get injured.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
So we actually you did see are killed in action
and our wounded in action triple in numbers.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But we were making a big push.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
We were finding those IDs, we were finding the insurgent sales,
so we were making a huge difference.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
It just it came at a cost.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
We had huge up armored vehicles. We had one that
was called the Husky. It was like a mind detecting vehicle.
And these vehicles were actually made for Africa, so they
could drive over minefields and have the mines explode, and
the bottom of vehicles instead of being flat like a
lot of the US vehicles, they had a v haul,
so they came down into a point like a boat,
and what would happen is when the rounds would come up,
(10:36):
they would shatter a way versus coming straight up to
the armor.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And so we had mind detecting vehicles.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
We had troop carrying vehicles that just a little bit
heavy armored so we could have some firepower on top.
And then we'd have the one that had the huge claw.
So if we found wire we found something that looked
kind of suspicious, that claw would go way forward to
the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Had a camera on it.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
We could interrogate it without ever leaving the.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Security of our vehicle.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
And there were signs where we would take three hits
in a single day. Three IED's that we weren't able
to spot them. They'd detonate on us, and as long
as our vehicles would keep rolling, we just kept rolling
on with the mission.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
We didn't stop. You know.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Then February twenty seventh, two thousand and seven, came about,
so like any other day, woke up, you know, got
the guys ready, got the vehicles prepped, got them prepped,
brought him in, We did our briefings. They knew exactly
it was going to take us about fifteen hour patrol
that day to get through all the routes that we
had planned. And then you know, we loaded up and
(11:44):
we had been on the road about three hours and
we came across one of the routes. I believe it
was rob Primus. It was actually a dead end road.
And typically when you plan your route, you never covered
the same spot more than once because if you do,
you get blown up because.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
They can predict you.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Unfortunately, the dead end road there's one way down all
the way back, and we had taken our time, and
anytime we're looking for the IDs, you're only going about
two miles per hour, so it's a creep crawling obviously,
why you need that heavy armored vehicles Because you're moving
so slow, it's an easy target. And we got down
to the end of the road. It's a very rural area.
(12:24):
There was a lot of canals and farmland and not
the open desert that.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
People think of when they think of I racked.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Once we started coming back up, we picked up the
pace a little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I want to say.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
We were probably going about between five and ten miles
an hour, so it's not like we were speeding up
the road, but we weren't creep crawling along either. And
then I heard the blast. I can remember hearing the boom,
and before I could even get like a choice for
a letter word out of my mouth, I was hitting
the ground. And you know, when you go through these
training and you go through all this stuff as a leader,
(12:56):
you always want to just pause for a second and
just get a quick battle damage assessments so you can
make a quick decision.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
It can't be long. It's just a quick pause.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
And as I did that, I looked at my vehicle
and I really at the time didn't see anything out
of the unusual about it.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
But I didn't see it was my guys.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
So I just immediately got up to run back for
my vehicle, and as I got closer to the vehicle,
that's when I could feel the flames hit me in
the face and I realized I was on fire. And
because I felt like it was in the torso area,
because it was just hit me in the face so bad,
I decided to drop my IBA or my protective vest,
and so I kind of just tossed it real quick,
(13:34):
got down and started to roll and I only got
about a roll and a half in and the heat
was so intense that it.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Basically locked up my muscles.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
But I definitely was like, Okay, this is it for me.
This is where my life ends. I'm going to die here,
you know, face down on the ground and IRAQ him.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
You know what am I going to do? I can't move,
you know, and I'm on fire.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
And about the time those those those emotions and those
thoughts were coming over my body, I could hear my
as you home for me.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Before I knew it, They're hit me with that fire extinguisher.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
And it went from that extreme heat to the extreme cooling.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And I don't think I'll ever.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Probably find the words to describe that feeling of that
cooling sensation and the relief it provided me, like almost instantly.
But then it also gave me, you know, that emotional
kind of aspect where came maybe I'm not going to
die here on the ground that if they got to
me and I feel like this right now, then maybe
I still have a fighting chance to go on from there.
(14:30):
One of my young sergeants, Sarnt Redmond, wasn't one of
my best sergeants. I actually had plans on kicking them
out of the army for some other bad decisions he made.
But two of the young guys were going to grab
me and start dragging me off the road, and he
stopped him, and he's like, no, you can't do that.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
You have to get the spine board. If you drag him,
you'll kill him.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
And the only analogy I can really use, or the
way to explain it is if.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
You think about baked chicken. You just pulled that baked chicken.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Out of the oven, you know, and how the meat
and this everything just kind of scups out of the bone. Well,
I basically had just been burned alive, So had they
drugged me, everything would have just scupped off and they
probably would have killed me. The guys were talking to me,
you know, reassuring me, and I was getting a little
annoyed with it. I can't remember telling them just to
shut up. I got this, don't worry about it. And
(15:19):
before I knew it, I could start to hear the
chopper coming in. The helicopter the metavact was coming in.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
You know.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
All the guys would kind of lightly lay over me,
not enough to irritate the burns or anything, but just
protect me from the water rush of the bird landing.
And they loaded me up. I remember there was a
female flight medic. She asked me, my name is social.
I know, I got my name out, no idea about
the social and the megs just kind of kicked in.
(15:49):
Later on I found out they they pretty much had
to start working on me right away and blot I
Later years, about two years after it happened, I actually
got to meet my surgeon. It was a Air Force colonel,
and he said that, you know, of his two years
that he almost spent over there, they they had never
been attacked except for the one time I was on
the table and they got a rocket attack. So things
(16:11):
were shaken and stuff, and he said, what he could
remember was my legs is everything above my boot was
in really really bad condition. And I I don't remember
what the procedure was called, but basically there was a
procedure they weren't supposed to do on burns. Brooke Army
Medical Center is like the Burn Hospital, one of the
best hospitals for burns, and there was a procedure that
(16:33):
they weren't supposed to do on any burn patients, and
he ended up doing it. I mean, it was the
only way to save my legs, because had that happen,
they would have had to take my legs too. So
you know, here's a guy who not only saved my life,
cause I was constantly flat lining and having all kinds
of issues, and the prognosis I was even going back
(16:53):
to the unit was I wasn't gonna make it that
I was just too far gone at that point.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
And you were listening to Army ranger Michael Schlitz tell
one heck of his story, and he deploys to Iraq.
He doesn't get the easy space, and there isn't really
much of an easy space or place there, but he
gets the sony triangle. Then you overlay the surge and
particularly the insurgents use of minds that actually develop their
(17:21):
own name called improvised explosive devices, because that's what they were,
and his job was to find them, which meant he
and his units will go out at a crawl and
be open targets for not only these devices, but all
all kinds of attacks, and all to protect fellow soldiers
from these IEDs and ultimately to secure the area. When
(17:45):
we come back, more of this remarkable story, the story
of how Michael Schlitz comes back from a near death
experience here on our American story and we continue here
(18:09):
with our American stories and the story of Army ranger
Michael Schlitz. Let's pick up where Michael last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Luckily, they stabilize me and pretty much sent me to
Brooke Army Medical Center and got there on to March
of seven, immediately put into ICU.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I've spent six months in.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
ICU, multiple skin grafts. At that point they had to
make the call to go and take the hands so
I didn't lose the hands from the explosion.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
I actually lost the hands through the burns.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Like mentally, I knew, I knew how to walk and stuff,
but I had so much muscle damage and so much
weakness that when I would go to get up to walk,
like initially, I would just kind of crumble. I couldn't walk,
So they had to build that up. So, you know,
sometimes it was just today, all we're going to do
is stand up out of bed.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
The next day, you know, we're going.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
To do two steps, and now we're going to walk
to the door.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Like one of the ways they motivated me is my brother.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
And my niece were down visiting and they allowed me
to walk to the ICU doors and my niece was
sit on the ground and it's really the first time
she got to see me too, and she didn't recognize me.
And her name's Brina, and I always had a way
I'd always saying and bringing Brina, and so I did
that and she realized it was me, and of course
(19:30):
I had to go back to the room, so they
shut the doors, and then she was upset that she
did get to hang.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Out with me.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
It wasn't until I went to my welcome home ceremony
then I found out that three guys I had my
vehicle all passed away. You know, they didn't want to
tell me when I was in the hospital or going
through recovery because they didn't want me to mentally or
just have it stressed me out to the point where
i'd take a change. After about four months of the
(19:56):
burn warden and still going through it. The only way
they had let me out of the hospitals if I got
a small house on post House close to the hospital,
so if anything happened, I was still nearby. So Mom
and I moved into a small, small, probably maybe seven
hundred square foot home, two bedrooms right on top of
each other. And that's where it's that that timeframe, you know,
(20:18):
I was still probably sleeping sixteen hours a day. I'd
be up, they'd change my bandages, and I'd eat, and
that's pretty much all I know. I'd go to sleep,
wake up, eat, go to sleep, wake up, eat.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
And go sleep.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
And but for Mom, that that was probably some of
the most horrific time, besides just learning about the stuff.
But she had to take it. She had to do
a lot of the won't care. She had to do
all the coke and the cleaning. I wasn't allowed to
sleep on my sheets more than once because of infection,
So I just put all that on her and obviously
she didn't have anybody to help her, so.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
She was doing all that on her own.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And eventually, you know, I got my first prosthetic, and
that night I can remember going home and Mom cooked
and cut all my.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Food up for me.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
But that very first time I was able to feed myself,
and that was huge for me because leading up to
that first protec, I couldn't trust myself, couldn't feed myself,
couldn't take myself to the bathroom. There was really very
little I could do on an average statement myself, and
that affects you mentally. Obviously I contemplated suicide, but you know,
(21:24):
I didn't want to let Mom down, and then you know,
I had my brothers in the army and a lot
of people who visited me, and you never want to
let anybody down. So ultimately, because of that support system
is why I didn't commit suicide. But when I had
that first prospectic give me that little bit of hope,
that little bit of independence. And then shortly after that
I got the second prosthetic, and you know, I just
(21:45):
kind of did on the gost.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Sense, and not that I don't have.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Bad days or you know, take turns here and there,
still I can't say I never saw my life going
in the direction it has. One of the things I
battled with a sense of purpose. You know, my entire
adult life, I was a soldier. I lived for my career.
I would have pretty much everything in my life took
second second string to my career, like I wanted to
(22:10):
be a soldier.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
This is what I do.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And you know, if I mean missing a wedding or
missing somebody's birthday, or missing a big, big event that
if if it was for the military and something I
had thought I had to do, I would always pick
it over everything. And uh, you know, even my marriage,
like I got divorced well before the injury, but I
always put my career.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
It's just it's who I was.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
And now I didn't feel like I could be a
soldier anymore. I felt like, you know, my identity had
been struck for me.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I didn't know what I was going to do, and you.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Know, Mom and I would have conversation like I don't
know what I could do, and I was like, well,
maybe you could do some public speak.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Then I'm like I can't do that, you know, and she,
you know, she.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Would try to guide me, and you know, I couldn't
foresee what where life would take me at the time,
and or or even at you know, falling back on
my career as an instructor giving classes to a few
hundred kids, you know, or soldiers are doing any of
those things. But as they started doing more events, they
would ask me to come speak, and I told my
story more. And I had that opportunity to go over
(23:10):
back to Iraq on three different occasions through a thing
called Operation Proper Exit. And so when I came back,
I just kind of went full in and motivational speaking
and leadership speaking companies, units, nonprofit events, charity events, and
so that's why I do now, and you know, it's
my purpose, it's what I like to do. It keeps
(23:32):
me around both the veteran community, guys who served, whether
it was World War Two up through the current conflicts,
or it's the active duty guys, every branch you can
think of. It just allows me to get around to everybody.
And I've had a great support network. Obviously I didn't
do it on my own. You know, the Brotherhood has
been very very good to me. I mean, whether it
(23:53):
was my guys out of Tenth Mount, the Rangers I
served with you know, guys that you know I was
a private with that still keep in touch with me.
It's a very very tight knit community. And you know,
I'm just I'm a proud Army veteran, you know, you know,
I'm glad I got the chance to serve.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I can picture my life without it.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
But obviously, veterans, you know, it takes a certain mentality
to serve your country. And obviously, after fourteen years of war,
you know, everybody who goes over there comes home a
little different. You know what really kind of bothers me
is when I go in public, I could have three
veterans with me. Two might be suffering from postmatic stress,
(24:38):
one could be have a TBI at traumatic brain injury,
and then there's me and the only one they'll think
is me, and they just forget about these guys. But
those guys' service is no different than mine, you know.
And I have you know, guys that have multiple deployments
always coming up to me and saying, you know, my
you know, my service isn't quite the same. It isn't
(24:59):
like you now, your service is the same as mine.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I had one bad day which changed, you know, this
part of me.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
But the actual service serving your country is no different.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
You know, anybody on any given day.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Can I have a bad day, and I'm what a
bad day looks like. But we don't know enough about
the brain and the way things function to fix the
brain right now. And you can throw mads at it
and you can do different things, but ultimately brain's going
to do what the brain's going to do. But for
somebody like me who has a physical injury, the guys
that have leg injuries, there's always a way to adapt.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Something I can figure out. You know, even before I
have prosthetics.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
I used to take the gatorade bottles, drill hole in
the cap, put the cat back on and feel you know,
I have my drink and I have a straw in there,
so I can carry it myself. So for me, life
is always about adapting and changing and doing stuff. But
when you have a TBI or you have PTS to
the higher functioning levels, you don't have that option.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
You know, you can't control it.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
So they may look what you considered normal, but they're
struggling more so than a lot of the people that
you considered disabled. So I think it's important to stay
in touch with everybody and not fall off the grid.
It's going to be harder for those guys who who
maybe move to those rural communities away from military posts,
away from some of the larger organizations. But in today's society,
(26:25):
and especially with social media, you know in Facebook, I mean,
there's so many veteran groups on Facebook that you can
reach out to, and maybe you don't get to go
up and have dinner with them once a week or
once a month, at least you can communicate or if
you're having some issues somebody to vent to. And nobody
understands a veteran like a veteran.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And a terrific job on the production by Greg Hengler
and a special thanks to Michael Schlitz for sharing his
story about his service and all that happened while he
was on duty in Iraq, losing three of his pals.
He survived, but he lost three of his pals, lost
his hands, and lost so much but gained as much
(27:09):
too back learning about the Brotherhood, learning about the Tenth
Mountain Division, and so many others who helped Michael schlnts
his story the story of so many of our soldiers
who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here on our American stories,
Host
Lee Habeeb
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