Platoon sergeant still taking care of his troops
ROS sent us this email in hopes there are some folks who can help out this platoon sergeant who is still taking care of his troops;
First I would like to thank everybody for contacting me. I would like to tell you a little bit about the soldier you are about to help. He was in my platoon and was one of the younger sergeants. He was on his second combat tour, but was still making some very bad rookie mistakes. Some of those mistakes because some soldiers to even get injured. I was very hard on him and at one point was very close to kicking him out the Army. He wanted to do good and you could see he wanted to be a good soldier, but he was struggling. On the day I was injured as I laid laid on the ground right after they had put me out the fire extinguisher to soldiers were contracting out the road and he insisted they go get the spine board. For those of you who are not familiar with Burns had they drugged me off the road my skin would’ve scoffed off similar to that of chicken skin after being baked. I consider him to be one of the reasons why I am still here today. Even though he made all those bad decisions he me the decision the day I was injured and could possibly been the one who saved me ultimately. Sense that he is gone now the Army and the diagnosed with PTSD stemming from that day. Partly because of me and the other half being from the three soldiers we lost that day. He has struggles and was starting to get back on his feet with his family when this tragedy happened. I appreciate you all reaching out and helping me get this man back on his feet. I am very grateful for your support.
Anything you can do to help is truly appreciated the matter how small. He understands that after losing everything every little bit adds up. Right now the two best ways to help him would be through checks/cash or gift cards to Walmart. There is one close to his house that they can get food, clothes, and everyday around the house goods.
I am also checking into a couple other organizations at this time that might be able to help during this time of need. I will try to keep you all posted with updates as soon as possible. I am scheduled for another trip this Sunday and will be out of town until the end of the first week of May. If any of you need to reach me you can reach me on Facebook or at this e-mail address.
Thank you again for all your support and if there’s anything I can do for you please let me know.
—
“RLTW”
SFC (R) Schlitz, Michael A.
GallantFew.org
Category: Support the troops
Contact AER
PGR is very active in that area of Virginia when comes to helping vets in need. I can post it up to the FB page, but would like a little more detail if at all possible…thanks.
@Jonathan: AER would not help if he is out of the service.
Hate to be the skunk at the garden party, folks – but this one seems a bit “off”. Neither Google Maps nor the USPS web site can find that address. And a Google search using “Jonathan Redmond” Richland Virgnia doesn’t bring up any stories of fires or other tragedies that would result in someone losing “everything they had”.
Ain’t sayin’ it’s BS, but I am a bit suspicious.
I don’t have AKO access. Is the name legit or has anyone tried contacting the individual?
Please Remove this article. There is a reason why I didn’t post his info on a web site. This is not okay and was not my intent. Putting up addresses on a site is not right. If they want more info they can contact me at schlitz76@gmail.com
No Jonathan Redmond in AKO, and the ‘John’ Redmonds did not match the above information.
Interesting
Jonn, can you take the address info out for M Schiltz, please see his request. Thanks. And to everyone else this is not a scam of any kind.
This isnt a scam. I served with Mike at 4 RTB, he was an RI and I was a LRS instructor, before I went to OCS. Check you facts about people before you start saying thing don’t seem right.
Forgot to publish my info for the above post. Yes you can do your ako “checks” if you wish.
Mark Herlick
Mark Herlick: I’m presuming that your comments were directed at me, since I was the one that indicated in above that this one didn’t look quite right. I said that because, frankly, it didn’t. And IMO it still doesn’t.
As originally written, the article had major holes in it. For starters, the contact address originally listed (since redacted) was unknown to both Google Maps and the USPS. There are no details on how the unfortunate individual referenced in the article “lost everything”. It gave what appeared to be a classic “sob story” and asked for monetary help. To be blunt, it looked a lot like a any number of well-known Internet scams dressed up as a “help out a down-on-his-luck vet” story.
If you’ll re-read my comment 4 above, you’ll also see that I did not accuse anyone of running a scam here – I just raised the caution flag. That’s nothing but being prudent and careful these days. There’s another scammer out there running a new Internet scam every day, if not every minute.
So far, I still haven’t seen anything yet that proves to me that this story is legit. Sadly, claims from people I’ve never heard of before that “I know this guy; this is no shit” just aren’t enough any more. If you’ve got any citations to online sources that would help confirm the story, please post them.
One last bit of advice: looking around at a site like this is almost always a good idea before taking people to task. This site has exposed numerous military fakers and posers – in fact, that’s one of Jonn’s main reasons for running the site. Those who frequent TAH have good reason to be skeptical about claims; we’ve seen far too many people profiting from blatantly lying about their military service. The modus operandi here is “Trust – but verify.” Had you done a bit of looking around here at TAH before commenting, my guess is you’re smart enough to have figured that out.
Correction: first sentence of comment 13 above should read “. . . I was the one that indicated above . . .” Incomplete edit on my part before posting.
@13 Hondo, I’m with you on this one. I’m still an FNG at researching people and their claims but this one doesn’t have the right feel to it. I honestly hope I’m wrong but those little hairs on my neck are twitching.
My apologies, Mike. I meant to replace the original address with your email and hurried myself. I am sorry.
As for the rest who question it, questioning its validity is questioning SFC Schlitz’s integrity, and that’s a bit too far. Don’t make me sorry I asked to post a fellow soldier’s tragic circumstances in order to garner support. Frankly, that would piss me off. If you don’t wish to, fine, but don’t dare question the authenticity or word of SFC Schlitz.
As for looking around at people who’ve been here, I’ve known Jonn nearly 12 years and sent this to him myself. Perhaps looking around on the part of others would be just as prudent.
I couldn’t follow the original story because of the grammar / word choice / etc.
This story is more garbled that something caught in the spam filter concertina wire.
ROS: not questioning your integrity, amigo. But this one simply doesn’t have anything that allows any form of independent verification. And these days well, sorry – if that’s not there, for me it goes in the “questionable” category unless I know the source personally (and can thus evaluate the source’s credibility). I’ve seen too many scams.
I won’t (and don’t) claim this is BS. But I won’t generally take unsupported assertions at face value any more if I can’t find some kind of independent confirmation, either. And that’s especially true when first-cut things like contact addresses (since redacted) don’t check out.
And to make it crystal clear to all: I’m also not questioning SFC Schlitz’s integrity. But I don’t know him personally, either. So without further info, this simply stays in the “undetermined” category for me.
1st Jonn, thank you for removing the addy. 2nd Ros thank you for sharing this with Jonn and for trying to help Mike with this. 3rd Hondo, I understand that you wanted to make sure of this, understandable. However I can tell you that Mike is very legit… do believe this then check out GallantFew.org… and Mike’s Facebook page. Mike is a survivor and one hell of a SFC (R)and Wounded Warrior advocate. The little town where this other soldier live is such a small town in my home state that most maps don’t even have it listed. These guys served in the same area as my son who was KIA in 2007. My son and these guys have many mutual friends in the Army. I know this doesn’t help you believe all this, but thought I would give my input.
Hondo, please keep up all you do it is great appreciated, I for one look forward to reading whatever you find. Most is so right on.
Ros, I am for ever grateful for you and all you do for me and so many others. love you
sorry for the error
****do believe**** should have been
“don’t believe then check this out……..
If anyone besides ROS had sent me that email, I wouldn’t have put it up, but she said she knew the people involved, and like she said, we’ve known each other for more than 12 years, so there’s a measure of trust there. I wondered about putting the address up, but since there was no other way to provide assistance listed in the email, I assumed wrongly. I took it down as soon as I saw some opposition and I apologize for assuming something without asking first. That was my bad.
For the record, I get hundreds of solicitation emails with people begging for me to support their cause, but in the current environment, I usually don’t post them. Like I said, i did it as a favor to ROS and based on the level of trust I have for her judgement.
Rest assured that I will never post anything that I suspect is a fraud. My inbox is full of those. I take my responsibility to my readers seriously.
When I read the OP yesterday I will admit it was with a Jaded eye. Like most of you I have learned to question everyone who says they were there or even that they are a vet. It is a sad sad thing that we must do this because a few people have caused distrust for all who have earned the right to claim “I am a Veteran”.
SFC Schlitz story is easy to confirm. His contact information is easy to verify, so my question came down to “did he write this letter?” I contacted him and asked if he did in fact write the letter and gave him the link to TAH. With in minutes he posted here asking for it to be removed.
There is no doubt in my mind the this letter is from the real SFC Schlitz, there is no doubt that the letter was sent to a limited number of people he trusted asking to lend a helping hand to a Brother in Arms. It is a sad thing at his private letter was made public without his knowledge. Some good can come of this, the need for a helping hand is still there. Read the OP again, this time with the knowledge that it is the truth and then think “There but for the grace of God go I”
Mickey, thanks for understanding. No offense was intended – just being cautious. Glad to see no offense was taken.
I did check out “Gallantfew.org”, but all I found was a “please donate” screen. I didn’t see any link I recognized as being to SFC Schlitz’s facebook page, or any description of the circumstances of the individual(s) for which help was being solicited. Could you ID same if it’s there, or post it here?
I googled Schlitz, Micheal A. And found several hits pertaining to his injury.
He post on twitter at this link http://twitter.com/#!/rangerschlitz
His face book is listed as his contact
https://www.facebook.com/michael.schlitz
Enigma: thanks.
https://www.facebook.com/gallantfew
http://www.gallantfew.org/?pageid=3&page=Home
http://www.gallantfew.org/?pageid=3&page=Home
https://www.facebook.com/gallantfew/info
http://www.gallantfew.org/?pageid=3&page=Home
here is Gallantfew. Thanks