WEBVTT - The Road Home for Sergeant First Class Michael Schlitz 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:14.400 This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories, 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.400 the show where America is the star and the American people. 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.200 And if you want to listen to our show, go 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:25.640 to the iHeartRadio app or listen to the podcast well 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.880 wherever you pick them up up. Next, a story kindly 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:32.960 submitted to us by the Veterans History Project at the 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.760 Atlanta History Center, we will be hearing from Army ranger 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:39.400 Michael Schlitz, who served in Iraq. 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:41.000 Let's take a listen. 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:44.159 I went in the military pretty much right out after 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.040 high school. You know, honestly, I was a little immature. 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:49.280 I knew if I went to college I was probably 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.160 going to struggle. I'd probably party a little too hard 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:54.680 and not really pay enough attention to the classes, and 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:57.040 I really didn't want to set myself up for failure. 0:00:57.560 --> 0:00:59.720 Plus I was just kind of floating around life at 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.240 the time. I didn't really have the direction and really 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:05.920 an idea of what I wanted to do. And my 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:09.200 father had been a Navy veteran. My brother was already 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.520 in the Army, and at the time I didn't know it, 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.440 but he was about to go to Haiti for Operation 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:18.200 Uphulled Democracy. So my goal was to come in the military, 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:21.160 do a few years, maybe come back out, go to college, 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:27.200 and then figure out what I want to do. Came 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.319 in the Army in March in nineteen ninety six, did 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:32.919 my training here at Fort Benning, Georgia, Basic and ait 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:36.319 pretty much right off the get go of it. I 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:39.200 just fell in love with it. I liked the discipline. 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:43.039 I like the routine. I like the everyday challenges. I mean, 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:45.360 you pretty much woke up every day knowing what you're 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:47.440 going to do, but at the same time, there was 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.880 new levels of responsibility and challenges constantly thrown at you 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.440 to kind of keep you on your toes and make 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:54.000 you react. 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:55.720 And to me, there's nothing else like it. 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.000 We do talk a lot about the teamwork and coming 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.040 together as a team to uplished a mission, but you know, honestly, 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:03.960 the military has a lot of eye in there too, 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:06.520 Like you have to outperform your peers in order to 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.239 be promoted able to go to those schools, and I 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.080 always challenged myself to be better than those around me. 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:20.880 My first assignment after completing my training was one five 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.520 Infantry out of Fort Lewis, which was part of the 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:26.680 twenty fifth Infantry Division. About a year and a half 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:29.600 being at Fort Lewis, I got picked to go to Korea, 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.880 and then after Korea went to first of the five 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.160 oh second at one hundred and first, and right away 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:38.560 when I got to the hundred and first, you know, 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:40.640 I just started plugging away. I was a specialist at 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:43.120 the time, and I asked him, you know, can I 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:44.280 go to a pre ranger. I want to go to 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:46.160 ranger school? What do I need to go? And they're like, well, 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:46.920 we got to send. 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:47.959 You to assault school. First. 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:50.160 The very last thing you do is a twelve mile 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:53.560 foot march, and you know it's self release. 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:55.440 You got thirty five pounds on your back. You have 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.280 three hours and it's an individual task. 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.760 You know, it's your own. Yeah, there's other people out there, 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:04.239 but it's really on you. And I ended up coming 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:07.680 in first place for that, and so I did my 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:11.160 other classmates. And so the next day was graduation. My 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.240 first arm platoons, aren't I come to the graduation? And 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.240 I guess it was pretty normal that when you graduate 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.239 the course, i'd give you a four day pass to say, hey, 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:24.040 you know, good job, then come back to work. And 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:26.920 my company, my infantry company, was doing a ten mile 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:31.160 company race the next day, and my platoons aren't, said, 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.359 you know, first, aren't. Would like to give you the 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.480 four day pass, but we're having this race. 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:38.880 We need to introduce you to the rest of the 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:39.720 guys in the company. 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:41.960 We understand you did twelve miles, but would you come 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:44.720 out and do this run tomorrow? And you know, I'm 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:47.040 you know, being a young guy, and you know, wanting 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:49.320 to prove myself. I said, of course. So I showed 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:51.440 up the next day and I ended up taking third place. 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.119 I can remember my platoons aren't in first. Aren't again, 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:57.120 pretty much the only guys who know who I am, 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:58.680 pulling me off to the side and said, oh, by 0:03:58.680 --> 0:03:59.400 the way, on. 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:00.840 Monday, you start pre ranger. 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.080 So I've always been a pretty lean guy, so going 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.000 into reindeer school, you know, at five six, I only 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:11.520 weigh one hundred and fifty five pounds. 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:13.200 I can remember before. 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:15.960 Going to school them saying, hey, you need to put 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:17.960 as much fat on your body as you can, because 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:19.920 you know, once you're done burning through the fat, you're 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.960 gonna start burning through your muscle. And it, sure enough 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.040 happened to pretty much all of us, and it has 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.120 a very distinct ammonious smell. And at the time we 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.640 had the old bedus with the brown shirts, and. 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.120 Everybody's shirts would turn orange. 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.360 It was because when you burn the muscle and it 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.000 puts off the secretion and everything, it would almost. 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:40.800 Bleach out your shirts. 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.080 And so two months later when I came out of 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.599 the swamps of Florida and they brief you, and it's 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:48.640 the first time I actually had stepped on the scale 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.000 the entire time, and I weigh one hundred. 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:51.520 And fifteen pounds. 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:53.960 I started at one hundred and fifty five pounds, So 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:57.520 in just over two months, you know, I lost forty pounds, 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.719 and for being somebody who was lean, that was actually 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:03.080 quite a bit. And you know, leading up to graduation, 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:05.360 those four days are actually allowed to start putting food 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.599 in your system. And I can remember eating pints of 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.800 hazen Das ice cream and you know, full pizzas, and 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.080 I mean you would just eat and eat and eat, 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:15.560 and then. 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:17.360 When you could, you try to get some rest too. 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.240 And so a graduation I had actually put on in 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.599 those four days, had got myself back up to one 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:23.720 hundred and thirty five pounds. 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.640 But it was like all gut your eyes are still black. 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:28.760 They're sunk it in. Your cheeks are sunk it in. 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:31.960 They're just reil looking. You're very weak looking, but you 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:33.839 have this little pot belly thing going on, you know, 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.120 under the uniform. But the majority of the people who 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:41.200 do go to school within that that point, we'll probably 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:43.880 lose anywhere from twenty five to about fifty pounds, depending 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.960 on how big you are. I went back to the 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.520 hundred and first I made sergeant. Shortly after getting back, 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.880 I was a team leader. And then the big Army 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:56.440 decided about it's time to go back to Korea, and 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.560 so packed my bags went back to Korea for another year. 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:02.400 You're always within your one year, you're always allowed to 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:05.880 take a little vacation time. At some point, they caught 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.280 mid to or leave, and so I was married at 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.120 the time, and so my wife had come over and 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.400 we just had just south of the peninsula, there's a 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:16.320 little island. So we had gone down to the island 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.720 for a few days, flown back into Soul. We're having 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.039 dinner and the next day we're due to flight to Bali, 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:25.600 Indonesia for a few days. And we're sitting there having dinner, 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.000 watching the football game on the TV and we saw 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.039 the first plane hit the tower, and we actually thought 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:33.440 they had changed the channel on us, thinking they took 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:35.880 the football game off and then put on a movie. 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:38.640 And so we're all kind of yelling, you know, because 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:41.080 it was kind of an American bar and soul like 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:43.159 put the game back on. And then we saw the 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:46.719 second plane hit and we realized, okay, something's not right. 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:50.599 So you know, we didn't even finish our dinner, you know, 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:52.600 we paid our check, jumped in a cab, went back 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:56.159 to our hotel where I had my work cell phone, 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.680 and it was like, yeah, vacations over, time to come home. 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.359 The vacation is over, indeed and over for so many 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:06.520 of us, especially those who serve in uniform. And we're 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:11.440 listening to Michael Schlitz tell his story, his service story. 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.040 By the way, so much of his family, so many 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:16.200 members of his family, had served. And that is the 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.720 case throughout this country that military service runs through the family. 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:24.880 When we come back, more of Michael Schlitz's story here 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:32.040 on our American Stories. Here are to our American stories. 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:36.000 We bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith, 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.920 and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.080 need to be told, but we can't. 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:41.560 Do it without you. 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:44.560 Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:47.400 free to make. If you love our stories in America 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.240 like we do, please go to our American Stories dot 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.200 com and click the donate button. Give a little, give 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.360 a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming. 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:08.280 That's our American Stories dot com. And we continue with 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:12.320 our American stories and with Michael Schlitz's story. We just 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:16.120 heard about the day that changed America nine to eleven, 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:21.800 and that's September eleventh, two thousand and one. And let's 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:23.320 take it back to Michael. 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:28.560 Eventually moved up to a staff position running the resources 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:31.920 for all Ranger school Sometimes it was air assets, but 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:36.360 all the ranges land, pretty much everything except for AMMO. 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:37.960 We had an AMMO guy who did that. 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:40.080 When it was time for me to leave, I called 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.000 up my branch manager and said, hey, you know what's 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.560 the next deploying unit. He goes, well, the next next 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:47.160 guys to leave his tenth Mountain division. 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:48.760 So that's where I want to go. 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.800 And so I mean to me, there was no other options. 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:54.360 It was this is what I want to go do. 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.400 And since I hadn't had the chance to really deploy. 0:08:58.360 --> 0:08:59.880 I knew I wanted to be on the next Chalco 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.520 one out, So I reported to tenth Mountain Division in 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.079 March of six, and we deployed in August of six. 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:11.440 So our sector was the southwest side of Baghdad. The 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.960 media at the time called it the Sunni Triangle or 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:18.079 the Triangle of death. You know, when we first invaded, 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:20.160 you know, the insurgents really didn't. 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.240 Know how to fight us, and as they studied us and. 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:25.679 Found out our operating procedures, then they could figure out 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:26.240 how to attack. 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:28.840 It's a weakness, it's just like we do for them 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.400 and then are wounded and are. 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:36.800 Killed in actions had doubled, and so in six we 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.800 have what we call the surge. And basically the US 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:42.600 answer to that was to just triple the number of 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:44.839 US forces we had in erect. 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:46.520 At the time and do a big sweep across the country. 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.600 And that obviously in an area like that to it's 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.960 littered with roadside bombs, IED's improvise explosive devices. 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:57.760 The more people you put in an area, the more 0:09:57.880 --> 0:09:59.240 that can actually get injured. 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:01.800 So we actually you did see are killed in action 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:04.800 and our wounded in action triple in numbers. 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:06.560 But we were making a big push. 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:10.160 We were finding those IDs, we were finding the insurgent sales, 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:11.959 so we were making a huge difference. 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:13.640 It just it came at a cost. 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.360 We had huge up armored vehicles. We had one that 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.920 was called the Husky. It was like a mind detecting vehicle. 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.120 And these vehicles were actually made for Africa, so they 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.360 could drive over minefields and have the mines explode, and 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:28.560 the bottom of vehicles instead of being flat like a 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.000 lot of the US vehicles, they had a v haul, 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.559 so they came down into a point like a boat, 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:35.920 and what would happen is when the rounds would come up, 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.360 they would shatter a way versus coming straight up to 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:38.840 the armor. 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.120 And so we had mind detecting vehicles. 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:44.959 We had troop carrying vehicles that just a little bit 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:47.200 heavy armored. 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.679 So we could have some firepower on top. And then 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:53.240 we'd have the one that had the huge claw. So 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.280 if we found wire, we found. 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:59.920 Something that looked kind of suspicious, that claw would go 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:01.679 way forward to the vehicle. 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:04.280 Had a camera on it. We could interrogate it without 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:06.640 ever leaving the security of our vehicle. 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:10.320 And there were signs where we would take three hits 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:11.120 in a single day. 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:14.480 Three IED's that we weren't able to spot them. They'd 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:15.160 detonate on. 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:17.400 Us, and as long as our vehicles would keep rolling, 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:18.840 we just kept rolling on with the mission. 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:20.280 We didn't stop, you know. 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:23.840 Then February twenty seventh, two thousand and seven, came about, 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.439 so like any other day, woke up, you know, got 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.319 the guys ready, got the vehicles prepped, got them prepped, 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:35.760 brought him in, We did our briefings. They knew exactly 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.360 it was going to take us about fifteen hour patrol 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:40.200 that day to get through all the routes that we 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:44.320 had planned. And then you know, we loaded up and 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:46.840 we had been on the road about three hours and 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:48.439 we came across one of the routes. 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.160 I believe it was rob Primus. It was actually a 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:53.880 dead end road. 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:56.520 And typically when you plan your route, you never covered 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:59.000 the same spot more than once because if you do, 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:01.359 you get blown up because. 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:04.160 They can predict you. Unfortunately, the dead end road there's 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:05.040 one way down. 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.600 All the way back, and we had taken our time, 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:11.000 and anytime we're looking for the IDs, you're only going 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.360 about two miles per hour, So it's a creep crawling obviously, 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.559 why you need that heavy armored vehicles Because you're moving 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:19.360 so slow, it's an easy target. 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:21.720 And we got down to the end of the road. 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:23.920 It's a very rural area. 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.600 There was a lot of canals and farmland and not 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:29.200 the open desert that. 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:31.920 People think of when they think of I racked. Once 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:33.760 we started coming back up, we picked up the pace 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:35.400 a little bit. I want to say. 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:37.360 We were probably going about between five and ten miles 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:39.120 an hour, so it's not like we were speeding up 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.480 the road, but we weren't creep crawling along either. 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:43.880 And then I heard the blast. 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.880 I can remember hearing the boom, and before I could 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.360 even get like a choice for a letter word out 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.439 of my mouth, I was hitting the ground. And you know, 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:55.400 when you go through these training and you go through 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:57.520 all this stuff as a leader, you always want to 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:00.240 just pause for a second and just get a quick 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.160 battle damage assessment so you can make a quick decision. 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:05.840 It can't be long. It's just a quick pause. And 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:06.600 as I did that, I. 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:08.760 Looked at my vehicle and I really at the time 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.360 didn't see anything out of the unusual about it. 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:12.960 But I didn't see it was my guys. 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:15.480 So I just immediately got up to run back for 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.360 my vehicle, and as I got closer to the vehicle, 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:20.360 that's when I could feel the flames hit me in 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:24.120 the face and I realized I was on fire. And 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:27.800 because I felt like it was in the torso area, 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:29.480 because it was just hit me in the face so bad, 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:32.920 I decided to drop my IBA or my protective vest, 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:34.720 and so I kind of just tossed it real quick, 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:38.280 got down and started to roll and I only got 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.120 about a roll and a half in and the heat 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:44.160 was so intense that it basically locked up my muscles. 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:46.960 But I definitely was like, Okay, this is it for me. 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:49.160 This is where my life ends. I'm going to die here, 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:51.120 you know, face down on the ground and IRAQ him. 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:53.600 You know what am I going to do? I can't move, 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:54.600 you know, and I'm on fire. 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.679 And about the time those those those emotions and those 0:13:57.720 --> 0:13:59.839 thoughts were coming over my body, I could hear my 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.079 as you home for me. Before I knew it, theyre 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:04.880 hit me with that fire extinguisher and it went from 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:09.240 that extreme heat to the extreme cooling. And I don't 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:11.920 think I'll ever probably find the words to describe that 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.320 feeling of that cooling sensation and the relief it provided me, 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:18.599 like almost instantly, But then it also gave me, you know, 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:22.000 that emotional kind of aspect where came maybe I'm not 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:23.720 going to die here on the ground that if they 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:25.840 got to me and I feel like this right now, 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:28.040 then maybe I still have a fighting chance to go 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:32.160 on from there. One of my young sergeants, Sarnt Redmond, 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.920 wasn't one of my best sergeants. I actually had plans 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:37.640 on kicking them out of the army for some other 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.200 bad decisions he made. But two of the young guys 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:41.920 were going to grab me and start dragging me off 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:44.800 the road, and he stopped him, and he's like, no, 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:45.640 you can't do that. 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.280 You have to get the spine board. If you drag him, 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:48.920 you'll kill him. 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.160 And the only analogy I can really use, or the 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.200 way to explain it is, if. 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.760 You think about baked chicken. You just pulled that baked chicken. 0:14:57.400 --> 0:14:59.440 Out of the oven, you know, and how the meat 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:01.800 and this everything just kind of scups. 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:02.000 Out of the bone. 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:04.840 Well, I basically had just been burned alive, So had 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:06.840 they drugged me, everything would have just scopped off and 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.640 they probably would have killed me. The guys were talking 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:12.080 to me, you know, reassuring me, and I was getting 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.280 a little annoyed with it. I can't remember telling them 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.120 just to shut up. I got this, don't worry about it. 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.200 And before I knew it, I could start to hear 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.520 the chopper coming in. The helicopter, the metavact was coming in. 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:25.520 You know. 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.280 All the guys would kind of lightly lay over me, 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.280 not enough to irritate the burns or anything, but just 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:33.680 protect me from the water rush of the bird landing. 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:35.800 And they loaded me up. 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.600 I remember there was a female flight medic. She asked me, 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:41.680 my name is social. I know, I got my name 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.680 out no idea about the social. 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:48.400 And the megs just kind of kicked in. 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:51.480 Later on I found out they pretty much had to 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:55.760 start working on me right away and blot I Later years, 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:57.120 about two. 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.600 Years after it happened, I actually got to meet my surgeon. 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.840 It was a Air Force colonel, and he said that, 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:06.200 you know, of his two years that he almost spent 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.480 over there, they they had never been attacked except for 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:09.880 the one time I was on the table and they 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:10.760 got a rocket attack. 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:14.160 So things were shaken and stuff, and. 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:15.480 He said, what he could remember was my legs is 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.480 everything above my boot was in really really bad condition, 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:22.600 and I I don't remember what the procedure was called, 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:23.800 but basically there was. 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:27.240 A procedure they weren't supposed to do on burns. 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.240 Brooke Army Medical Center is like the Burn Hospital, one 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.600 of the best hospitals for burns, and there was a 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.600 procedure that they weren't supposed to do on any burn patients, 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:37.200 and he ended up doing it. 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:39.000 I mean, it was the only way to save my legs, 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.600 because had that happen, they would have had to take 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:43.280 my legs too. 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.720 So you know, here's a guy who now only saved 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:49.920 my life cause I was constantly flat lining and having 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.080 all kinds of issues. And the prognosis that was even 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:55.080 going back to the unit was I wasn't gonna make it. 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:57.160 That I was just too far gone at that point. 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.920 And you were listening to Army ranger Michael Schlitz tell 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:04.159 one heck of his story, and he deploys to Iraq. 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.240 He doesn't get the easy space, and there isn't really 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:10.879 much of an easy space or place there, but he 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:15.480 gets the sony triangle. Then you overlay the surge and 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:21.000 particularly the insurgents use of minds that actually develop their 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:25.280 own name called improvised explosive devices, because that's what they were, 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:28.359 and his job was to find them, which meant he 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.359 and his units will go out at a crawl and 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.080 be open targets for not only these devices, but all 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:40.560 all kinds of attacks and all to protect fellow soldiers 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.320 from these IEDs and ultimately to secure the area. When 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:48.359 we come back, more of this remarkable story, the story 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:52.440 of how Michael Schlitz comes back from a near death 0:17:52.480 --> 0:18:09.680 experience here on our American stories, and we continue here 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:14.000 with our American stories and the story of Army ranger 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:18.720 Michael Schlitz. Let's pick up where Michael last left off. 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.720 Luckily, they stabilize me and pretty much sent me to 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:27.200 Brooke Army Medical Center and got there on to March 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:33.639 of seven, immediately put into ICU. I spent six months 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:36.280 in ICU. 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:36.680 Multiple skin grafts. 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:38.520 At that point they had to make the call to 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:40.720 go and take the hands so I didn't lose the 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:41.840 hands from the explosion. 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:43.560 I actually lost the hands through the burns. 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.840 Like mentally, I knew, I knew how to walk and stuff, 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:50.160 but I had so much muscle damage and so much 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.440 weakness that when I would go to get up to walk, 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:55.200 like initially, I would just kind of crumble. 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.600 I couldn't walk, so they had to build that up. 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:01.280 So, you know, sometimes it was just today, all we're 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:02.240 going to do a stand up. 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:02.840