Eric Schmitt-Matzen and his sad Santa story
A number of folks have sent us this story in USATODAY about Eric Schmitt-Matzen and one of his trips to the hospital in his Santa Claus persona to visit a sick child. Schmitt-Matzen claims that he served in the 1/75th Rangers for four years, and I want to believe him.
“When I walked in, he was laying there, so weak it looked like he was ready to fall asleep. I sat down on his bed and asked, ‘Say, what’s this I hear about you’re gonna miss Christmas? There’s no way you can miss Christmas! Why, you’re my Number One elf!
“He looked up and said, ‘I am?’
“I said, ‘Sure!’
“I gave him the present. He was so weak he could barely open the wrapping paper. When he saw what was inside, he flashed a big smile and laid his head back down.
‘“They say I’m gonna die,’ he told me. ‘How can I tell when I get to where I’m going?’
“I said, ‘Can you do me a big favor?’
“He said, ‘Sure!’
“When you get there, you tell ’em you’re Santa’s Number One elf, and I know they’ll let you in.
“He said, ‘They will?’
“I said, ‘Sure!’
“He kinda sat up and gave me a big hug and asked one more question: ‘Santa, can you help me?’
“I wrapped my arms around him. Before I could say anything, he died right there. I let him stay, just kept hugging and holding on to him.
The 75th Ranger Regiment says that he is a Ranger;
Category: Veterans in the news
I read that elsewhere and teared up.
I sure hope he isn’t lying to us about his service. I want to believe him, too.
Anybody who DOESN’T get teared up by that ain’t human in my book.
Okay, we’ll agree to believe him. It’s certainly true if no one picks up that rock and sees what, if anything, is there.
In view of the season, can we just let this one go? Grind the axe some other time?
I’m with you Ex, and others that are expressing the same sentiment.
Second.
Count me in on that, Ex.
I’m on this boat too.
Let’s keep rowing on to the next target…
To be fair he said he was WITH 7th Rangers, not that he WAS a Ranger. But please Santa…don’t be a fibber.
Everyone assigned to the 75th is a Ranger as all have to go through the same selection process.
Again, it’s a sad sign of the times that the first thing that pops into our minds when we read stories like these is, whether the person is truly a veteran, and one that served in the unit as claimed. I don’t want to take away from this sad story, but I’m sure people are already looking into his background.
I read this story earlier this morning and it brought tears to my eyes.
This “Santa” did a very loving & caring selfless act for this young boy in his time of need. My heart goes out for this young man, his parents, and to Eric Schmitt-Matzen.
I too had a pang of “what if he is a poser” when I read the part where Eric said he served with the 75th Rangers. Damn the posers that were exposed here and other Stolen Valor websites! It pisses me off when because of their actions, my mind semi-automatically questions if Eric Schmitt-Matzen was really a Ranger and not instead just focus on the wonderful act he did.
I agree with EX-PH2 in this matter, let’s just let this one go.
Ditto, here. And the poodle proves who he is every time he comments here.
the poodle’s principles – or lack thereof – always glare through the veneer, do the not?
If he is a poser, we’ll hear about him again soon enough.
If you’re referring to Mr. Schmitt-Matzen, he was a Ranger. Read further below. It was confirmed yesterday.
He did an amazing and beautiful thing for that young lad. May the youngster rest in peace and may God comfort his family.
And yes, I cried openly.
I’m with you, OC… I cried reading the story.
Lies are lies! There are plenty of Jewish people who made up tall tales and lies about the war, even though it may have been with good intentions they bring discredit to the situation as a whole. If Santa is found out to be real then he deserves the recognition. If found out to be a liar he should be outed, good intentions and lies only bring distrust of people to a cause when the truth comes out. This web site is a perfect example of that…. I’m hoping for the positive that he is real.
Just the notion that you suspect “Santa Claus” of lying is hilarious to me.
poodle dick, you are one big asshole!
Your attempts at humor are as dim-witted and arrogant as everything else you say, Lars. Merry Christmas.
Shut up, Piuperdink, you useless waste of time.
Find some place else to drop your crap, willya?
Hey Lars, I just have to ask you, DID IT HURT? Did it hurt that day you oozed out of someone’s sphincter and landed on the cold, hard porcelain?
FUCK YOU, POODLE DICK!
!
I am sooooo fucking tired of your comments!
You and people of your ilk are totally fucking worthless pieces of shit!
If you don’t like it here at TAH, then while don’t you grab your ass and leave! Nobody invited you here, so do a solid and leave & go bother (bullshit) other people.
Fucking worthless piece of shit and a scab on humanity’s ass.
In all fairness to you, as your legion of fans here have expressed some doubt, am I reading you correctly? You are mocking the anti-semite above for lying, right?
Concur. Point – left! Ready, Fence!
Well I, for one, laughed out loud at that comment. Good one, Commissar! It’s sad that others in this forum can’t control their bite-reflexes long enough to give credit where it’s due. Happy Festivus, everybody!
Good one Lars.
Fuck you, Lars… you motherfucking asshole. Many of us gave him the benefit and didn’t make it an issue that he stated he was a Ranger… the man has more balls and integrity than you and make a dying boy’s wish come true and was there for him.
I would hope that someone would do the same thing for you if you requested it while on your deathbed… but since you’re a congenital asshole I hope that your last moments on Earth find you alone, with nobody to comfort you.
Merryfucking Christmas, Lars “ASSHOLE” Taylor
Why the fuck are you singling out Jews, you anti-Semitic piece of shit? Fuck you, the decrepit three legged nag you rode in, your syphlitic whore of a mother, and I’d happily damn your father if I knew which drunken drifter spent his 3 minutes conceiving you.
Yeah, I’d like to know why he’s doing that, too. My sister’s Jewish. Her birthday falls on Christmas Day.
I find that crapweasel attempt at ‘humor’ to be quite disgusting and uncalled for, especially since Hanukah falls on Christmas Day this year.
If you want to be tacky and tasteless, take it some place else, jerk.
Well PH2 if you had reading comprehension above the 3rd grade you would have realized my post wasn’t a stab at Jewish people,it was about people who were in bad situations making stories up with good intentions. That simular to most people I’ve seen pretending they were either in the miltary or in some engagement. You jump too quick to conclusions that weren’t there.
Why even include “Jewish”? Your post would make sense without it. Better sense, in fact, if your intention was to make a comment about people making up stories, and not to criticize Jewish people in particular.
Yeah, why not say Polaks? Or Dagos? Or the Frogs? Why not go after the faggots that Franco’s sadistic bastards tortured, just for the fun of it? Come on, jerkwad, pick an ethnic group! I dare you!
Ex, don’t forget us Micks that reside at TAH! Be inclusive!
Well, GhostM, if you could think above the 1st grade level you would realize that when one begins with:
“Lies are lies! There are plenty of Jewish people who made up tall tales and lies about the war, even though it may have been with good intentions they bring discredit to the situation as a whole.”
then what one has done is hurl an accusation at a people group. An accusation for which you provide neither justification nor evidence.
In other words, your post was “a stab at Jewish people.” If you did not intend for it to be a stab at Jewish people, then your proper response ought to be an apology and clarification of your intention – and pay better attention to your composition in the future.
Well greybeard my post doesn’t have anything to do about hate of any people it was about liars in past and present period. I said the word jew and suddenly I’m antisemit. After reading my post I should have not put the reference of jews in there cause now the point was completely over looked. For everyone who thinks I’m a hater it’s laughable cause I never said anything to incite hatred or violence toward anyone. That’s not what this site is about. I realize my wording should have been different but for those who got their panties twisted well tough shit.
Not much in the way of a clarification, an acceptance of responsibility, nor an apology.
In my English class you’d get an F. Especially in the light of the atrocious excuse for English and for cogent thought displayed in this response.
Oh, my! Not only is this a disclaimer of any responsibility on the part of ghostmorgan for being a scurrilous pot-stirring slime, he also seems to think that trying to retract what he wants to label as an offhand remark will make everything okay.
Well, it won’t. He only did it to piss people off, claims some sort of bewilderment at the reaction stirred by his intentional use of one ethnic group’s ethnic label and, in addition, calls them liars.
No, ghostmonger, you can’t get out of this. You said. You own it. It’s all yours. Perhaps some day, you’ll learn what it’s like to be on the receiving end of that same kind of targeting.
Oh, wait – you’re getting it right now. Have a nice day, asswipe. You still can’t get out of it. You said it. You own it. On behalf of 14 million people who were slaughtered by the Nazis in Europe, fuck you. Fuck you very much. You aren’t funny, and you sure as hell aren’t very bright.
HEY “Ghost Morgan”, you’ve pissed off The Queen Lioness of TAH®™, Ex-PH2 herself. I have ZERO sympathy for you as she sharpens her claws on your flesh and bones.
Well, I think I got rid of most of the annoyance. It’s a good thing he didn’t make me angry, isn’t it, API?
I’d like to add the following numbers of people who can’t speak for themselves:
20,000,000++ Russians murdered by Stalin’s orders, not to mention all those who starved when he let Lysenko head the Soviet Ag Dept;
2,000,000++ native Cambodians slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge by Pol Pot’s orders;
Uncounted numbers of Chinese citizens slaughtered by the Japanese in the 1930s during the Rape of Nanking;
The Kuwaitis who were tortured and killed by Saddam Hussein’s troops, under his orders, never mind the Iraqi people he ordered slaughtered;
The U.S. troops in the Pacific during WWII who were beheaded and cannibalized by Japanese soldiers during the Bataan Death March;
Uncounted and still missing US troops taken prisoner, tortured and slaughtered by the Kim regime during the Korean War;
US troops who were lured off the trail by the Apache and caught by the VC, and tortured to death by that bitch;
And anyone who suffered execution and torture at the hands of Mary Tudor, aka Bloody Mary, after Henry VIII died, along with the countless numbers of people who were executed for refusing to convert from Judaism to Catholicism during the days of the Church’s Inquisitions.
On their behalf, I repeat to ghostmorgan: Fuck you, fuck you very much, you slime at the bottom of a barrel of rotting meat.
Just for your edification…to all assholes…THEY ARE NOT JEWS, they are either Hebrew or Israeli’s! and no unfortunately I am not one!
Mmmm. Nah. You were trolling a little rain on the anti-semite storm front. And the folks here busted you for it.
if that was your A game, you should reconsider further attempts.
THAT fercoct behemye of a kadokhes thinks he can come hok our collective choniks with impunity, but the khazer for punishment failed to realize that when he stirs the shitpot here he’ll be forced to not only lick the spoon, he’ll be forced to eat from the pot until it’s empty!
Oh, really?
Well, ghostmorgan, if you had manners somewhere above the level of a sadistic asshole – which you don’t – you’d realize that your posting that comment of yours was not only in extremely poor taste, but also indicative of what you actually think.
Jews make up lies about ‘the war’???? Which Jews are you talking about? The death camp survivors? The 7-Day War? Brief skirmishes with the PLO? Be specific, you shark’s offal.
Right now, you are so full of utter bile that if you spit on the sidewalk, it would dissolve under your feet.
Your comment was tasteless, uncalled for, and out of place. That makes you an even worses social moron than Commissar, and frankly, I did not think that was possible.
If you’re going to spend your few days on Earth insulting people you don’t know, you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. I hope you choke on it.
I too hope his tale is true and would hate to find out different. That would be a tough gig and I think I would rather do just about anything than have a child die in my arms.
Pediatric nurses and staff are truly angels on earth.
He gets a pass from me. I’m satisfied.
Dear Mr.Schmitt-Matzen,
I appreciate so much what you did for that little boy. And thanks for doing it.
Christ-I hope to God that he was lying about every bit of it, I really do. Infinitely easier to dismiss him as a liar than to think about some kid passing away like that-to say nothing of the reaction of the mother. If he really did that for a dying kid, then he is a man with great compassion and a very special person-but I honestly hope that he is just a liar.
The fact is that kids like that are struggling – and sometimes dieing – all the time around us.
When one of my grandsons was in one of the children’s hospitals in Houston earlier this year with mastoiditis we saw a lot of children struggling with life-altering or fatal conditions.
The one thing I noticed (and relevant to James’ comments below) is that seriously ill children are still, first and foremost, children. They play like children (as their affliction allows) think like children, dream like children, comprehend like children, and talk like children.
I would like to think a child never had to go through this. I’ve seen differently.
This is not to say this particular case could not be mis-reported, exaggerated, or dramatized. But I’ve seen enough to know that it also could be very real.
(By God’s grace, our grandson has recovered – although he will have an interesting scar all his life.)
I had a niece who was in the Pediatric ICU when she was less than a year old due to getting hit in the head by a foul ball, so I am perfect aware that things like this happen (and also know that the people who work there are much stronger than I am). Again I say,; my sincere hope is that he is a liar, because the alternative is infinitely more horrible.
68W58 – affirmative on those folks being much stronger than I am.
I would wish that no child ever had to suffer like that. It rips me up that they do.
It is a healthy culture that values its children – and a noble desire to shield them from harm. It’s hell when we cannot do that.
Once knew a lady who was a pediatric oncology nurse. Don’t know how she did it, but respect her profession more than I can say.
The entire dialog sounds phony to me. More like something you would find in a movie script than from someone who is in the process of dying.
Please enlighten us with your thoughts on the proper conversation to have with a terminally-ill child.
I doubt “James” has ever been there.
The 75th Ranger Regiment says that he is a Ranger;
Good. Makes me feel a ton better.
Ditto.
So enough with the pounding, all right?
Mr. Schmitt-Matzen did something wonderful and that’s all there is to it.
As the current qualified Machine Gunner/Lurker on TAH… Does Santa need a Sleigh-Door Gunner? Asking for a friend… Something tells me this is why NORAD both track him yearly, and gives him a pass though US Airspace…. And he’s got some seriously badass elves on QRF should he need it apparently!
God bless him. Doing what he does for children in that condition takes a kind of courage I can’t fathom.
Amen.
Thank you, Jonn.
And Eric Schmitt-Matzen, thank you for your kindness & comfort you gave to that young man.
Remember, you made a difference even against an inevitable outcome.
So possibly part of that jump on airstrip in Grenada? Think TAH had an article on it, and Wikipedia lines up as well as it can for not knowing his dates: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Grenada
If the 75th Regiment says so, that’s all I need.
Eric Schmitt-Matzen,you’re a better man than I am.
Amen!
That’s good enough for me.
Such a touching story. Had a feeling that reading any comments was a mistake. Too bad I ignored my gut on that one.
Damn you lefty fools to hell for your inability to allow others to enjoy simple, good stories. Your propensity to go into the living rooms of others a take a dump is disgusting. But you already knew that.
It is great comfort knowing that the insanity of fools like those negative idiots who post here actually have no long term effect on my attitude, or those of most of the people here. I feel only pity for those who find joy in causing, or attempting to cause, pain or emotional distress in others. They are all sad, sad excuses for human beings.
Thank you, Mr. Eric Schmitt-Matzen for reminding us all the real reason for the season. Very reassuring.
Merry Christmas to the 75th Ranger Regiment.
I think we should all wish Lars a Merry Christmas. He sure as hell won’t hear it from anyone else there at Berkeley. As He whose birthday we celebrate would admonish us, we should turn the other cheek.
Okay, altogether now, everyone turn your backs towards Berkeley.
Now drop your trousers and bend over while saying, “Merry Christmas, Lars.”
There, now don’t you feel better?
Poe – you’re terrible.
Here’s mine:
Hey Lars, MERRY CHRISTMAS.
SHALOM, SCHMUCK!
Poetrooper, considering that most of the shops and cafes will be closed for the holiday, and that this particular Christmas coincides with Hanukah, I have doubts that the Piuperdink aka lars taylor will have much of a good time trying to find something to eat unless he gets one of those frozen dinners from Stouffer’s.
Let’s hope he finds something useful to do with his time. My charitable stuff went south when he posted another of his socially dense comments. He can go pound sand up his mangina if he can find it.
Poe, Lars would probably think that thing dangling down beneath my cheeks is mistletoe…oh well, pucker up Poodledick!
Merry Christmas!
(Genuinely, to you and to any and all who read here.)
Speaking of birthdays, He Who Shall Not Be Named, has a for realz one coming up next month.
I work in the OR at a level 1 trauma center, and see these children come through every day. They get tracheostomy, feeding tubes, brain tumor resection…too many procedures to count. It breaks my heart, as the father of 3 young boys, every day that I have to assist in those cases. To hold their hands as they go to sleep, and gently rub their shoulders as they wake up with a new orifice in their body keeping them alive. We use the monitors in the room to let them watch cartoons as they are being medicated prior to intubation. They love paw patrol, transformers rescue bots, my little pony. If this mans story is true, BZ. End of story. I’ve only ever lost one in 17 years, and I still have nightmares of trying to save his life. 4 years old, his name was Ryan. I’m done, can barely see the keyboard