Dad: Missouri Marine killed in Afghanistan was ‘amazing kid’

WENTZVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A Marine from Missouri who was among 13 service members killed in the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan was an “amazing young man” who decided early in his high school years to join up. Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz of Wentzville was 20 when he died Thursday. Funeral arrangements are still pending. Mark Schmitz told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that his son decided on the Marines around his freshman or sophomore year at Fort Zumwalt South High School, where he graduated in 2019. Mark Schmitz said his son enlisted the same year and embraced the calling.