Don't make this one into a political debate please...
DDN
OSU reaches out to Marine wounded in Iraq
By Tom Archdeacon
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
COLUMBUS ? He'd seen nothing but red before, but it wasn't an exhilarating moment like this: Not him and wife Jaime sitting in the Ohio Stadium press box, looking down on 105,000 mostly red-clad fans cheering the Buckeyes ? his Bucks ? to victory over Penn State.
That other moment of overwhelming red happened in Ramadi, Iraq, and it nearly killed him.
"There was a huge boom, and the truck filled with dust and smoke," Cpl. Don Schmidt said. "I was thrown sideways and felt sick to my stomach. When I opened the door, the other guys were screaming. That's when I looked down and saw the blood and my toes pointing back toward me ..."
It was Sept. 17, 2005, and Schmidt ? a small-town kid from Greenville, Pa., on the Ohio state line ? was starting his second Iraq tour as a radio operator with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines.
He and the three others in the Humvee had just cordoned off a IED along the road and were waiting for another group to come and clear the explosive when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the door near where Schmidt sat.
The others weren't hurt, but he lost his left leg, nearly his right and some 80 percent of the blood in his body.
The against-the-odds survival ordeal that followed took him to a Ramadi hospital, one in Germany, Bethesda Medical Center, Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., the past 10 months and, last Saturday, the Horseshoe.
He wore a red OSU cap, a red No. 45 Andy Katzenmoyer jersey ? "I loved The Big Kat" ? and a metal prosthetic leg fitted with a tennis shoe.
Jaime ? in a Ted Ginn jersey ? had managed to set up the trip. Before her 22-year-old husband gets released this week and rejoins the Marines, she wanted something special for his birthday.
Knowing his love of the Buckeyes, she tried unsuccessfully to get game tickets, then out of the blue called the football office and talked to coach Jim Tressel's secretary.
Tressel got the message and involved OSU sports information director Steve Snapp, who served as a Marine in Vietnam and felt a kinship:
"We appreciate what Don's done, and this was just a small way to pay Jaime and him back."
As they drove from Walter Reed, Jaime said Don could barely contain himself: "He was like a little kid."
That's part of the personality she fell in love with when they met in Las Vegas. He was between Iraq tours; she was working as a Stardust casino beverage manager and said, "All my cocktail waitresses kept talking about this cute guy out there. I went out and his country-boyish charm got me."
They married in March 2005, and Don said Jaime is the best thing that ever happened to him:
"She was there the day they brought me to Bethesda and hasn't left since. And you need someone. Your mind has to be stronger than your body when this happens, and sometimes you need to be reminded."
Jaime understands: "You just stick together through the ups and downs and pull each other through."
Saturday, they met OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith before the game, then Tressel, several OSU players and Penn State coach Joe Paterno afterward.
Asked how he'd managed to survive, Don thought a few seconds, then quietly offered:
"I guess I just didn't want to die over there. I'd told my wife I was coming back and I didn't want to break that promise. I knew there were a lot of things I wanted to come back and do with her. I knew with her it'd be special."
Saturday it was.
DDN
OSU reaches out to Marine wounded in Iraq
By Tom Archdeacon
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
COLUMBUS ? He'd seen nothing but red before, but it wasn't an exhilarating moment like this: Not him and wife Jaime sitting in the Ohio Stadium press box, looking down on 105,000 mostly red-clad fans cheering the Buckeyes ? his Bucks ? to victory over Penn State.
That other moment of overwhelming red happened in Ramadi, Iraq, and it nearly killed him.
"There was a huge boom, and the truck filled with dust and smoke," Cpl. Don Schmidt said. "I was thrown sideways and felt sick to my stomach. When I opened the door, the other guys were screaming. That's when I looked down and saw the blood and my toes pointing back toward me ..."
It was Sept. 17, 2005, and Schmidt ? a small-town kid from Greenville, Pa., on the Ohio state line ? was starting his second Iraq tour as a radio operator with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines.
He and the three others in the Humvee had just cordoned off a IED along the road and were waiting for another group to come and clear the explosive when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the door near where Schmidt sat.
The others weren't hurt, but he lost his left leg, nearly his right and some 80 percent of the blood in his body.
The against-the-odds survival ordeal that followed took him to a Ramadi hospital, one in Germany, Bethesda Medical Center, Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., the past 10 months and, last Saturday, the Horseshoe.
He wore a red OSU cap, a red No. 45 Andy Katzenmoyer jersey ? "I loved The Big Kat" ? and a metal prosthetic leg fitted with a tennis shoe.
Jaime ? in a Ted Ginn jersey ? had managed to set up the trip. Before her 22-year-old husband gets released this week and rejoins the Marines, she wanted something special for his birthday.
Knowing his love of the Buckeyes, she tried unsuccessfully to get game tickets, then out of the blue called the football office and talked to coach Jim Tressel's secretary.
Tressel got the message and involved OSU sports information director Steve Snapp, who served as a Marine in Vietnam and felt a kinship:
"We appreciate what Don's done, and this was just a small way to pay Jaime and him back."
As they drove from Walter Reed, Jaime said Don could barely contain himself: "He was like a little kid."
That's part of the personality she fell in love with when they met in Las Vegas. He was between Iraq tours; she was working as a Stardust casino beverage manager and said, "All my cocktail waitresses kept talking about this cute guy out there. I went out and his country-boyish charm got me."
They married in March 2005, and Don said Jaime is the best thing that ever happened to him:
"She was there the day they brought me to Bethesda and hasn't left since. And you need someone. Your mind has to be stronger than your body when this happens, and sometimes you need to be reminded."
Jaime understands: "You just stick together through the ups and downs and pull each other through."
Saturday, they met OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith before the game, then Tressel, several OSU players and Penn State coach Joe Paterno afterward.
Asked how he'd managed to survive, Don thought a few seconds, then quietly offered:
"I guess I just didn't want to die over there. I'd told my wife I was coming back and I didn't want to break that promise. I knew there were a lot of things I wanted to come back and do with her. I knew with her it'd be special."
Saturday it was.
