September 3, 2021 • 30 mins
Mark Schmitz and Darin Hoover are Gold Star Dads following the attacks in Kabul. Darin Hoover lost his son Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, who was only 11 years old when the WTC towers were attacked in 2001. Even at that young age he wanted to serve his nation seeing the horrors of that day. Mark Schmitz lost his 20-year-old son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz and described a very tense and negative experience with Biden in Dover yesterday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, news, round up, information, overload our eight hundred
and nine four one Sean, you want to be a
part of the program, untold. Hundreds of Americans now basically
their lives are in the hands of radical terrorists, you know,
and the whims of these terrorists, and what I think
could possibly happen, I don't even want to express publicly.
(00:22):
This is a very smart audience. We all know what
the possibilities are. The idea that we'd ever leave an
American behind goes against every single solitary fiber in my being.
Joe Biden said, what we'd leave nobody behind? One of
the saddest things in all of this to me, Well,
(00:43):
whenever there's a loss of life, it's said, right, we
value life or pro life. We know life as a gift.
We know, I believe in natural law, our rights, our
life comes from a God, a creator, a father, and
we're endowed by that crea. And as part of this,
the idea that we didn't we saw the Taliban on
(01:05):
the march as early as March, and we saw them
on the March in April, and we saw vast portions
of the country, province after province literally basically being not
defended by the great Afghan Army that Joe was bragging
about in mid July, and then we saw May June,
(01:27):
July even and we waited for the Taliban to take
over Cobble, and we for Joe Biden Bragg, well, we
have control of the airport to Washington Post says, there's
a report out now that actually the Taliban offered us
to have Cobble to get all the people out, and
he said no. Then they formed the perimeter. If you
(01:48):
can't if you don't control the perimeter to the airport
and you don't control the city around the airport, how
are you supposed to get your people home? And now
every diplomatic and every diplomat, every military person has now
left Afghanistan, and we have Americans now caught behind enemy lines.
In the lead up to this, we had this terror
attack that took place last week, and you know, we
(02:11):
lost thirteen of our bravest I called the kids their
kids to me, I mean, that's our national treasure. I
have kids. My kids are out of their teenage years now.
One of them is Lance Corporal Jared Smits. He's twenty
years old, was one of thirteen Marines killed at the
(02:32):
Karzai International Airport last week. And what was fascinating about
his story His father's going to join in US in
a minute. He'd been part of a group of Marines
that was sent back to Afghanistan for the specific reason
to assist with the evacuation efforts. His father, Mark joins
US now and also joining US as Darren Hoover, his
(02:53):
thirty one year old son, Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Darren
Taylor Hoover, who was the oldest US service member killed
on the twenty sixth of August is just last week,
was serving his third tour of duty in Afghanistan at
the time of his death. And by the way, his
father said, no parents should have to bury their their
sons or daughters. It's not supposed to work that way.
(03:16):
He was scheduled, by the way, to retire when he
got home and marry his fiancee, who's also devastated. Anyway,
Mark Smithson Darren Hoover, thank you both for being with us.
You Mark, I'd rather than ask any political questions right now,
let me let's talk about your son. One thing caught
my attention is he was sent back for these for
(03:39):
this very reason to assist for the evacuation. This is
something you said that he always wanted to do. And
I've never seen a young man train as hard as
he did to be the best soldier he could be.
Tell us about your son who lost his life. He
had decided firmly shout more year or so that he
(04:00):
was going to enter the Marine Corps and began training
doing this. This kid didn't go to the library, he
didn't do research, he didn't like school, you know, but
he jumped away a kid after my own heart. But
go ahead, he started googling, you know what the workout
regiment was from Marine Corps, what the basic physical conditioning
(04:25):
needs to be to get through boot camp alive, and
you conquered the crucible, et cetera. And he just started
training like crazy. He was a type that didn't have
a driver's license right away when he was sixteen, so
I would have to drive him up to the local
Marine office. And he started training with them before he
was even a recruit, just learning everything that they do.
(04:46):
He just really wanted to excel. And you know he
and he right out of high school joined the Marines,
went off to boot graduated. That was an honor to
be able to witness that. In October of nineteen he
finally got a first deployment to Jordan, and shortly thereafter
obviously that was a lot of training, but shortly after
(05:07):
that he got the call up to go to to Capool. Obviously,
his mother and I were terrified. He was excited. He
was so focused on training and doing what the Marines
can do. He wanted to make sure he honed in
on his skills on that. But now he finally had
the opportunity to put it into action. And I had,
(05:27):
of course that Dad and son talked about how serious
this is, and he said, don't worry. You know, we
all got each other's backs here. He said, okay, you know,
and he went there and finally got to do what
he really wanted to do, which was make a difference
and help people and the ARTCAICO Officer Martinez was nice
enough to share quote with me from Ronald Breagan that
(05:49):
really hit home. He said, most people will spend a
lifetime trying to make sure, trying to find out if
they made a difference in this world. Marines that don't
have that problem. My marine did not have that problem them.
Darren's marine does not have that problem. None of them do.
All of these guys are heroes and they've all made
a huge difference in this world. They defend our liberties
(06:10):
and freedom. And let me let me just say, on
a personal level to both of you, I'm so sorry.
I am so so very sorry. There's no words that
I can speak to you that can take away your pain.
I can't. I wish I could. I you know, as
a parent, I could only imagine. But if you're living it,
(06:31):
I'm sure it's very different. And I you know, I've
met many many gold Star families over the years, and
I always wonder in my mind, how do you ever recover?
And I even ask people how do you go get
up every day? And they just say that they would,
our kids would want us to and it's but they
(06:54):
acknowledge then their life changes forever. Both of your lives
last week change forever. And I know I speak for
this large radio audience who are on like six hundred
and sixty five stations and serious XM. And I'm just
telling you, everybody's listening down to both of you, and
they feel as I do. They're sickened, saddened. They know
(07:16):
that I won't get too political here, but this was
so preventable. Darren m Please tell her. I know your
your son is named after you, Darren Taylor Hoover. But
he I understand he went by the name of Taylor.
And you know you're the one that said no parents
should have to bury their sons and daughters. That your
son had the biggest heart in the world. And he
(07:36):
was about to retire and marry his fiance Nicole. Yes
he was, Yes, he was. Um. You know, growing up
he had the biggest heart, very compassionate towards people, very loving,
very caring, very understanding. He had all of that beyond
his years, in my opinion. After nine to eleven happened.
(08:01):
He was eleven years old at the time that happened,
and he said, right then and there, I'm going to
do something about this. Dad. You know, being eleven years old,
I'm like, don't well, okay, all right, that's a good
goal to shooting for. Um. And when he was also
in high school, the recruiters came to his high school
and for whatever reason, uh, he chose the Marine Corps. Uh.
(08:27):
He did the exact same thing. He started working out.
He'd go to the recruiting office and from there, the
sergeant that was there would take him out training with
a couple of other guys that we're also interested in
doing it. Um. He went through boot camp and for
for the people that don't get to see that, it is,
(08:49):
it's it. Well, the graduation is absolutely stunning. Yeah, I
believe so factful, so timed down to the you know,
down to the minute detail. Um, it's just a really
special time. And thankfully we were able to see that.
(09:12):
And then he got to his units and started training, UM,
taking as hard as he could. He had really good
senior senior non commission UH individuals helping him out and
UH wound up doing three tours in Afghanistan. His first
(09:35):
one was about a year in. Well, it's what he
loved to do. He loved this country. He absolutely loved it.
And like I said, from the from the time nine
time nine to eleven happened, this is what he wanted
to do, you know. Uh. And when I talk about
compassion and love, he was he was. He was the
(09:57):
love of the family. You know. He had his two
sisters that actually just absolutely loved him as they should.
They looked up to him and they went to him
for everything. They called they called him Bubba. He'd get
madam if he if they called him Taylor. And you know,
he's got several aunts and uncles on both sides, several
(10:21):
cousins on both sides, and he was the firstborn on
both sides of the family as well. But when he'd
get with his cousins and aunts and uncles, it was
it was nothing but a fun fest. Everybody would run
the Taylor. Everybody as soon as he walked in the room,
all the little kids were crowding him. You know, he
(10:43):
picked him up, hug him, squeeze and took him just
the whole thing. Family met everything to Taylor. And we
were so happy when he found Nicole Um. She's a
she's a little spit fired just like he was, but
she kept him in check. She's a little sweetheart and
we love her to death. We absolutely love her to death.
(11:06):
Let me ask you both, and I'm just gonna leave
it wide open. Mark. I'll go back to you and
and I want you to talk more about your son,
Lance Corporal Jared Schmidts, and you know, tell us more,
give us more context texture, maybe how you feel about
the situation he was put in. That's up to you.
(11:27):
I don't really want to drag you into my world.
I'd more want to honor your sons than anything else.
I have two kids on my own, marks around the
same age. My daughter was born thirteen days before nine
to eleven o one and she's now twenty and at
the same age as your son. He never stopped worrying
(11:50):
about your kids. I'm sure every day your sons are
in a war zone, you're really worried about him. Probably
not sleeping at all. Yes, he was a six months old,
just a little over six months old when when nine
to eleven hit and his mother told me that he
started talking about joining the Marines that be in third grade.
I believe it was you know, which is obviously just
(12:12):
too young for that. But he stuck with that and
made sure that it came true for him, and he had.
He was an extremely lovable brother to two sisters, my
half brother here in my side half brother and his
mom's side, and a step brother and my son as well.
(12:34):
So he's from a big family and every single person
just looked up to him. They knew that he was selfless.
That is probably the best word I have to describe him.
He would do anything for anyone, for any reason. Great
friends and so many we found that out. Now I
knew everybody loved him, but with grief, I mean, just
(12:56):
the outpouring he's been tremendous, and people coming out of
the woodwork that have told me stories of how Jared
had changed them personally. You know, it just melts my heart.
His mom is obviously struggling with this, as we all are,
but we're looking forward to having him home. And you know,
(13:18):
it just tears me up to the most that here's
a young man that's twenty years old, can't legally even drink.
We all know he already did. You know, he didn't
have a chance to get married. He didn't have a
chance to join the family business, which was recently discussed
with him that he said after the Core he was
considering coming to work with me, and you know, I
(13:40):
would have been extremely honored to have him on board.
And he and I were actually talking about him buying
a car when he got back, and when he got
out of the Core, finding an apartment, you know, and
just getting his life started. And I was trying to
find some information from him that he gave me months ago,
so I had to go through the text messages from
and this morning, and I was extremely difficult. But just
(14:05):
looking back and seeing all the things that he was
talking about that he was wanting to do after he
was done in the Corps, and to know that none
of these things are going to happen now, it's just
that's the hardest Part's tearing me up. But we're going
to stay with this. Mark schmitts he lost his twenty
year old son, Lance Corporal Gerard Schmidt. Darren Hoover is
(14:26):
with us. Is thirty one year old Marine Corps staff
Sergeant's son Darren Taylor Hoover in this blast that took
place last week. This terror attack will come back. Get
some final thoughts from these gold star fathers on the
other side, and our prayers are with all of you
and your family, and I know you both have some
very tough days ahead, and we h this audience cares.
(14:52):
I can tell you that I speak for everyone in
this audience, and these stories are heartbreaking. Eight hundred nine
four one, Sean, We'll get to your next half hour.
We have Hannity tonight at nine quick break. Right back,
we'll continue. Hey, don't forget that's the best of the
(15:23):
Sean Hannity Show. Every weekend right here on this station.
And while you're running errands and doing chores or just relaxing, Hey,
make sure you are listening to the best of the
Sean Hannity Show. Every week right here on this station.
(15:55):
You are listening to the best of the Sean Hannity Show,
continuing to build a foundation for conservative victory. Victory. Now
back to the Sean Hannity Show. All right, twenty five
till the top of the hour, Toll free on numbers
eight hundred and nine one. Sean final thoughts as we
(16:17):
continue from our last half hour. Mark Schmitts he lost
his twenty year old son, Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, one
of the thirteen Marines killed at the bombing at Krzhigh
International Airport in Cobble last week. Darren Hoover's with us.
He lost his thirty one year old Marine Corps staff
Sergeant's son, Darren Taylor Hoover, Darren, I'll let you say
(16:40):
anything you want to say about your son. You you
didn't meet Biden at Dover's and if you want to
talk about a fine, if you don't, I don't care. No,
we didn't meet him. We talked it over as a
family and decided that we didn't want anything to do
(17:02):
with him. We felt like that's what Taylor would have
wanted us to do. Now, don't get me wrong, Haylo
was over there. He was doing his job. He was
leading his marines and going from and we've heard this
from a bunch of his friends through different channels, or
(17:28):
a bunch of his his men through different channels, through
friends and through families, that he was going around to
each of his marines that were in that firefight prior
to the suicide bomber, going around to each of his marines,
keeping them on track on targets of the firefight, making
(17:52):
sure they all had the ammunition that they needed, making
sure they were staying focused, staying in the fight. That's
who he is. A natural born leader, from from his
early years up through the Marine Corps. He's always been that.
(18:12):
From his football team through high school or junior high
actually elementary school, middle school, and high school. Um, he
was one of the leaders on the field. Um. Like
I said before, he's very loving, very caring. But when
when it came to doing the job that he needed
(18:32):
to do, he got right down to the brass tacks
and and helped build up the marines that he was
in charge of. There was one titular marine. I forgive me,
I can't remember his name, but when he can't, when
this younger marine came into Taylor's unit when he was
(18:55):
a sergeant, he said that that's first Taylor scared to
live and crap out of him because he just stared
down and keeps staring at you until it made it
very uncomfortable. And if he was really mad, that's when
he started yelling. But it's just his demeanor, very calm
(19:22):
under pressure and wanted to build those marines up to
what they were expected to do. And he was given
a lot of training. He was giving a lot of
opportunity to train those marines. And you know what, like
I said, that's that's what he enjoyed. That's what he loved.
(19:44):
It was his passion. It was his absolute passion to
be the best marine that he could be, and I
think he did that. He wound up giving the ultimate
sacrifice that a service member can give and being a marine.
(20:05):
I don't think, as we've talked about it as a family,
we don't think it's tough to say, but we don't
think he would have wanted to go out any other way.
If he had to do it, he would go out
the way he did, with his fellow Marines, both men
and women, right by his side, fighting to the very
(20:29):
end to protect those people, which is honorable in and
of itself, but to do it in the manner in
which he did it and ultimately give up his life
in order to fulfill that duty. Unfortunately, that's the way
it turned out. And right now we can't none of
(20:52):
us can quantify how many potential lives they saved that
day or the following days right after that. But just
like mister Schmidt said, they're all heroes, every last one
of them. And to be disrespected like they were at
(21:14):
Dover when they were coming off the plane with mister
Biden looking as watch each time the each time the
salute was released and the Marines would go back up,
pick up another box and bring it down was disrespectful
(21:35):
as as anything I've ever seen. And I were struggling
with that. We're really struggling with that one. But like
you said, it's all about the boys and the girls,
their heroes. We want to keep them in the forefront,
never to be forgotten. And unfortunately, with war we know
(21:57):
this happens, but you're right when it was preventable, Mark,
I agree. I mean, I don't think there's an American
ownst that doesn't agree that we need to be out
of this got staken country. But it could have happened differently,
and I think our boys and girls would still be
with us today if it hadn't been handled differently. Mark,
(22:18):
we talked so much about your son, and it's such
a grave tragedy. What's happened to all of our marines
in Afghanistan and brave men and women. One of the
things I wanted to discuss with you is the president
his press conference yesterday where he called this withdrawal from
Afghanistan quote a success. What are your thoughts? Honestly, we've
(22:42):
been we've been more concerned about dealing with our son Jared,
and I didn't bother to even watch, so I had
no comment. No, I completely understand that. If I may,
I'd like to actually talk about a foundation that we've
set up for him. Yeah, we'd love to hear more
about that. Please tell us more about that cause well
(23:04):
we'll even put it up on our website and social
media at Hannity dot com. Well, thank you for that
we have partnered with the Saint Louis Hero Network. They
are responsible for raising money for backstoppers, etc. And my family.
We we've been blessed financially, so we don't need any
financial support for our own family. So one hundred percent
(23:27):
of any proceeds raised for Jared's foundation and memorial fund
will actually be applied to exactly that in other good causes.
We are planning on directing a sculpture on his behalf,
either just of him or of the thirteen that's yet
to be determined. We would love to set up a
scholarship in his name. That would be a recurring annual
(23:50):
scholarship that we could award out to a student from
the high school he attended. We'll work those details out
in time as well. But there's other projects that we
would love to since we've been receiving such a huge
overwhelming support for all of this, uh, you know, contribute
money to the Wounded Warriors projects stuff like that on
an annual basis. So we'll be doing fundraisers like this
(24:13):
on an annual basis to raise money and an awareness
for the third team fallen and contribute that money to
a good cause. The website that people can go to
if they feel so blessed to do so, would be
astl Hero network dot com, slash helps a dash Hero. Mark,
(24:37):
I just want to say we lost Jared on Friday.
I can't imagine what you and your family are going through.
As I said, I just want you to know how
incredible it is that you are already willing to give back,
and we're going to link all of this to Hannity
dot Com, will continue to pray for your family. We
just ask that you keep us surprised of everything that's
(24:57):
going on so we can help. America can help, the
audience can help. Well. We want to do whatever we
can to help you and your family. I appreciate that,
and we just want to make a legacy for him
and the people that have been reaching out and being
so supportive. We're going to help make that happen. So
from the bottom of our hearts, were so very thankful.
Thank you, Mark. We appreciate your time. We'll be thinking
(25:20):
about you and your family. You have a lot of
tough days ahead. God bless you. Thank you and Darren.
You know, we really haven't gotten political in this conversation,
but I did want to get your thoughts on the
presser from yesterday and President Biden calling this withdrawal from
Afghanistan that extraordinary success with the loss of your son,
(25:41):
Marine Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover, I don't think anyone can
call this a success. I wanted to get your take
on this. No, absolutely not. Yeah, it not only was
it not the perfect takeout, it was anything but it
was everything was backwards. Um, you know, to say that
(26:07):
that was a perfect deal, No, how could it be perfect.
There's thirteen live lost. There's thirteen lives lost, one of
one of them being my son. But he stood his ground,
He did what he needed to do, what he was
told to do, what he wanted to be there doing.
Like I said the other night, it was his passion,
(26:28):
and he died with his brothers and sisters fighting for
those people that couldn't fight for themselves. But no, this
is this was anything but perfect. There's I don't in
my opinion, and I know it's just my opinion, but
(26:48):
this was anything but perfect. This was a disaster and
it didn't need to happen, right. I think that's the
point that all of us feeling, and certainly we're grieving
alongside of you. But can't imagine what you're going through.
And we just want you to know myself, my entire
team here on radio and on TV, our audience, all
(27:11):
of us are thinking about you, trying to honor Taylor's memory.
Is there anything that we can do? Do you guys
have a go fund me, a website, anything that we
can put up on Hannity dot com to keep the
effort alive, to keep Taylor's legacy alive. Actually, thank you
for asking. There is his Marine Buddies from his various
(27:37):
units that he was in, a start to go fund
me page, and there is also a help that he
wrote that was started by the FOP, the Fraternal Order Police.
Hearing you talk. There is a t shirt company out
(27:58):
of you taught as well, that does shirts and sweatshirts
and all kinds of stuff that's called SRVs Gear. It's
service gear and it's geared towards first responders as well
as military members. It's just a way to give back
(28:21):
to those those members that have given the ultimate sacrifice.
And then we were also contacted by Salty Turtle Beer
company from down South and they are making instead of
twelve packs of beer, they're making thirteen packs of beer
(28:44):
for the thirteen members that we lost, and down on
the bottom of the can it has instead of the
expiration date, it has the name and the incident on
the bottom of the can of each one of the
members of the thirteen that's that we're killed in this
(29:04):
in this horrendous attack. That's actually pretty incredible. Look, we're
gonna put all of that on my website, Hannity dot
com today so everyone can go and support not just
these go fundmes, but these companies that are reaching out,
taking the time and honoring the fallen. And that's pretty
incredible of them. We'll let our audience know if there's
(29:27):
anything we can do to help, Please let us know.
And I just want to say thank you for being
with us, and I appreciate that very much. Thank you well.
I wish I had adequate words to communicate to both
of you. I hear the pain in your hearts and
your voice. Both of you described amazing young American heroes,
(29:55):
your sons. I know that you won't see them again.
I do believe in God. I'm a Christian, and you
know that's no greater old love it. The Bible says, then,
for one to lay down as his or her life
or another. Your two sons did that for this country
(30:17):
and for all of us, and many lives were saved
because of it. I'm so sorry about all the pain
that you have endured and you will endure in the days, weeks, months,
and frankly probably years ahead. And i want you to
know that this audience cares, and thank you for sharing
the story about these amazing young men that you've raised.
(30:40):
Thank you very much, sir, all right, eight hundred nine
four one Sean, I'm gonna take a break, then I'll
come back and get to the fols.
All right, news, round up, information, overload our eight hundred
and nine four one Sean, you want to be a
part of the program, untold. Hundreds of Americans now basically
their lives are in the hands of radical terrorists, you know,
and the whims of these terrorists, and what I think
could possibly happen, I don't even want to express publicly.
(00:22):
This is a very smart audience. We all know what
the possibilities are. The idea that we'd ever leave an
American behind goes against every single solitary fiber in my being.
Joe Biden said, what we'd leave nobody behind? One of
the saddest things in all of this to me, Well,
(00:43):
whenever there's a loss of life, it's said, right, we
value life or pro life. We know life as a gift.
We know, I believe in natural law, our rights, our
life comes from a God, a creator, a father, and
we're endowed by that crea. And as part of this,
the idea that we didn't we saw the Taliban on
(01:05):
the march as early as March, and we saw them
on the March in April, and we saw vast portions
of the country, province after province literally basically being not
defended by the great Afghan Army that Joe was bragging
about in mid July, and then we saw May June,
(01:27):
July even and we waited for the Taliban to take
over Cobble, and we for Joe Biden Bragg, well, we
have control of the airport to Washington Post says, there's
a report out now that actually the Taliban offered us
to have Cobble to get all the people out, and
he said no. Then they formed the perimeter. If you
(01:48):
can't if you don't control the perimeter to the airport
and you don't control the city around the airport, how
are you supposed to get your people home? And now
every diplomatic and every diplomat, every military person has now
left Afghanistan, and we have Americans now caught behind enemy lines.
In the lead up to this, we had this terror
attack that took place last week, and you know, we
(02:11):
lost thirteen of our bravest I called the kids their
kids to me, I mean, that's our national treasure. I
have kids. My kids are out of their teenage years now.
One of them is Lance Corporal Jared Smits. He's twenty
years old, was one of thirteen Marines killed at the
(02:32):
Karzai International Airport last week. And what was fascinating about
his story His father's going to join in US in
a minute. He'd been part of a group of Marines
that was sent back to Afghanistan for the specific reason
to assist with the evacuation efforts. His father, Mark joins
US now and also joining US as Darren Hoover, his
(02:53):
thirty one year old son, Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Darren
Taylor Hoover, who was the oldest US service member killed
on the twenty sixth of August is just last week,
was serving his third tour of duty in Afghanistan at
the time of his death. And by the way, his
father said, no parents should have to bury their their
sons or daughters. It's not supposed to work that way.
(03:16):
He was scheduled, by the way, to retire when he
got home and marry his fiancee, who's also devastated. Anyway,
Mark Smithson Darren Hoover, thank you both for being with us.
You Mark, I'd rather than ask any political questions right now,
let me let's talk about your son. One thing caught
my attention is he was sent back for these for
(03:39):
this very reason to assist for the evacuation. This is
something you said that he always wanted to do. And
I've never seen a young man train as hard as
he did to be the best soldier he could be.
Tell us about your son who lost his life. He
had decided firmly shout more year or so that he
(04:00):
was going to enter the Marine Corps and began training
doing this. This kid didn't go to the library, he
didn't do research, he didn't like school, you know, but
he jumped away a kid after my own heart. But
go ahead, he started googling, you know what the workout
regiment was from Marine Corps, what the basic physical conditioning
(04:25):
needs to be to get through boot camp alive, and
you conquered the crucible, et cetera. And he just started
training like crazy. He was a type that didn't have
a driver's license right away when he was sixteen, so
I would have to drive him up to the local
Marine office. And he started training with them before he
was even a recruit, just learning everything that they do.
(04:46):
He just really wanted to excel. And you know he
and he right out of high school joined the Marines,
went off to boot graduated. That was an honor to
be able to witness that. In October of nineteen he
finally got a first deployment to Jordan, and shortly thereafter
obviously that was a lot of training, but shortly after
(05:07):
that he got the call up to go to to Capool. Obviously,
his mother and I were terrified. He was excited. He
was so focused on training and doing what the Marines
can do. He wanted to make sure he honed in
on his skills on that. But now he finally had
the opportunity to put it into action. And I had,
(05:27):
of course that Dad and son talked about how serious
this is, and he said, don't worry. You know, we
all got each other's backs here. He said, okay, you know,
and he went there and finally got to do what
he really wanted to do, which was make a difference
and help people and the ARTCAICO Officer Martinez was nice
enough to share quote with me from Ronald Breagan that
(05:49):
really hit home. He said, most people will spend a
lifetime trying to make sure, trying to find out if
they made a difference in this world. Marines that don't
have that problem. My marine did not have that problem them.
Darren's marine does not have that problem. None of them do.
All of these guys are heroes and they've all made
a huge difference in this world. They defend our liberties
(06:10):
and freedom. And let me let me just say, on
a personal level to both of you, I'm so sorry.
I am so so very sorry. There's no words that
I can speak to you that can take away your pain.
I can't. I wish I could. I you know, as
a parent, I could only imagine. But if you're living it,
(06:31):
I'm sure it's very different. And I you know, I've
met many many gold Star families over the years, and
I always wonder in my mind, how do you ever recover?
And I even ask people how do you go get
up every day? And they just say that they would,
our kids would want us to and it's but they
(06:54):
acknowledge then their life changes forever. Both of your lives
last week change forever. And I know I speak for
this large radio audience who are on like six hundred
and sixty five stations and serious XM. And I'm just
telling you, everybody's listening down to both of you, and
they feel as I do. They're sickened, saddened. They know
(07:16):
that I won't get too political here, but this was
so preventable. Darren m Please tell her. I know your
your son is named after you, Darren Taylor Hoover. But
he I understand he went by the name of Taylor.
And you know you're the one that said no parents
should have to bury their sons and daughters. That your
son had the biggest heart in the world. And he
(07:36):
was about to retire and marry his fiance Nicole. Yes
he was, Yes, he was. Um. You know, growing up
he had the biggest heart, very compassionate towards people, very loving,
very caring, very understanding. He had all of that beyond
his years, in my opinion. After nine to eleven happened.
(08:01):
He was eleven years old at the time that happened,
and he said, right then and there, I'm going to
do something about this. Dad. You know, being eleven years old,
I'm like, don't well, okay, all right, that's a good
goal to shooting for. Um. And when he was also
in high school, the recruiters came to his high school
and for whatever reason, uh, he chose the Marine Corps. Uh.
(08:27):
He did the exact same thing. He started working out.
He'd go to the recruiting office and from there, the
sergeant that was there would take him out training with
a couple of other guys that we're also interested in
doing it. Um. He went through boot camp and for
for the people that don't get to see that, it is,
(08:49):
it's it. Well, the graduation is absolutely stunning. Yeah, I
believe so factful, so timed down to the you know,
down to the minute detail. Um, it's just a really
special time. And thankfully we were able to see that.
(09:12):
And then he got to his units and started training, UM,
taking as hard as he could. He had really good
senior senior non commission UH individuals helping him out and
UH wound up doing three tours in Afghanistan. His first
(09:35):
one was about a year in. Well, it's what he
loved to do. He loved this country. He absolutely loved it.
And like I said, from the from the time nine
time nine to eleven happened, this is what he wanted
to do, you know. Uh. And when I talk about
compassion and love, he was he was. He was the
(09:57):
love of the family. You know. He had his two
sisters that actually just absolutely loved him as they should.
They looked up to him and they went to him
for everything. They called they called him Bubba. He'd get
madam if he if they called him Taylor. And you know,
he's got several aunts and uncles on both sides, several
(10:21):
cousins on both sides, and he was the firstborn on
both sides of the family as well. But when he'd
get with his cousins and aunts and uncles, it was
it was nothing but a fun fest. Everybody would run
the Taylor. Everybody as soon as he walked in the room,
all the little kids were crowding him. You know, he
(10:43):
picked him up, hug him, squeeze and took him just
the whole thing. Family met everything to Taylor. And we
were so happy when he found Nicole Um. She's a
she's a little spit fired just like he was, but
she kept him in check. She's a little sweetheart and
we love her to death. We absolutely love her to death.
(11:06):
Let me ask you both, and I'm just gonna leave
it wide open. Mark. I'll go back to you and
and I want you to talk more about your son,
Lance Corporal Jared Schmidts, and you know, tell us more,
give us more context texture, maybe how you feel about
the situation he was put in. That's up to you.
(11:27):
I don't really want to drag you into my world.
I'd more want to honor your sons than anything else.
I have two kids on my own, marks around the
same age. My daughter was born thirteen days before nine
to eleven o one and she's now twenty and at
the same age as your son. He never stopped worrying
(11:50):
about your kids. I'm sure every day your sons are
in a war zone, you're really worried about him. Probably
not sleeping at all. Yes, he was a six months old,
just a little over six months old when when nine
to eleven hit and his mother told me that he
started talking about joining the Marines that be in third grade.
I believe it was you know, which is obviously just
(12:12):
too young for that. But he stuck with that and
made sure that it came true for him, and he had.
He was an extremely lovable brother to two sisters, my
half brother here in my side half brother and his
mom's side, and a step brother and my son as well.
(12:34):
So he's from a big family and every single person
just looked up to him. They knew that he was selfless.
That is probably the best word I have to describe him.
He would do anything for anyone, for any reason. Great
friends and so many we found that out. Now I
knew everybody loved him, but with grief, I mean, just
(12:56):
the outpouring he's been tremendous, and people coming out of
the woodwork that have told me stories of how Jared
had changed them personally. You know, it just melts my heart.
His mom is obviously struggling with this, as we all are,
but we're looking forward to having him home. And you know,
(13:18):
it just tears me up to the most that here's
a young man that's twenty years old, can't legally even drink.
We all know he already did. You know, he didn't
have a chance to get married. He didn't have a
chance to join the family business, which was recently discussed
with him that he said after the Core he was
considering coming to work with me, and you know, I
(13:40):
would have been extremely honored to have him on board.
And he and I were actually talking about him buying
a car when he got back, and when he got
out of the Core, finding an apartment, you know, and
just getting his life started. And I was trying to
find some information from him that he gave me months ago,
so I had to go through the text messages from
and this morning, and I was extremely difficult. But just
(14:05):
looking back and seeing all the things that he was
talking about that he was wanting to do after he
was done in the Corps, and to know that none
of these things are going to happen now, it's just
that's the hardest Part's tearing me up. But we're going
to stay with this. Mark schmitts he lost his twenty
year old son, Lance Corporal Gerard Schmidt. Darren Hoover is
(14:26):
with us. Is thirty one year old Marine Corps staff
Sergeant's son Darren Taylor Hoover in this blast that took
place last week. This terror attack will come back. Get
some final thoughts from these gold star fathers on the
other side, and our prayers are with all of you
and your family, and I know you both have some
very tough days ahead, and we h this audience cares.
(14:52):
I can tell you that I speak for everyone in
this audience, and these stories are heartbreaking. Eight hundred nine
four one, Sean, We'll get to your next half hour.
We have Hannity tonight at nine quick break. Right back,
we'll continue. Hey, don't forget that's the best of the
(15:23):
Sean Hannity Show. Every weekend right here on this station.
And while you're running errands and doing chores or just relaxing, Hey,
make sure you are listening to the best of the
Sean Hannity Show. Every week right here on this station.
(15:55):
You are listening to the best of the Sean Hannity Show,
continuing to build a foundation for conservative victory. Victory. Now
back to the Sean Hannity Show. All right, twenty five
till the top of the hour, Toll free on numbers
eight hundred and nine one. Sean final thoughts as we
(16:17):
continue from our last half hour. Mark Schmitts he lost
his twenty year old son, Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, one
of the thirteen Marines killed at the bombing at Krzhigh
International Airport in Cobble last week. Darren Hoover's with us.
He lost his thirty one year old Marine Corps staff
Sergeant's son, Darren Taylor Hoover, Darren, I'll let you say
(16:40):
anything you want to say about your son. You you
didn't meet Biden at Dover's and if you want to
talk about a fine, if you don't, I don't care. No,
we didn't meet him. We talked it over as a
family and decided that we didn't want anything to do
(17:02):
with him. We felt like that's what Taylor would have
wanted us to do. Now, don't get me wrong, Haylo
was over there. He was doing his job. He was
leading his marines and going from and we've heard this
from a bunch of his friends through different channels, or
(17:28):
a bunch of his his men through different channels, through
friends and through families, that he was going around to
each of his marines that were in that firefight prior
to the suicide bomber, going around to each of his marines,
keeping them on track on targets of the firefight, making
(17:52):
sure they all had the ammunition that they needed, making
sure they were staying focused, staying in the fight. That's
who he is. A natural born leader, from from his
early years up through the Marine Corps. He's always been that.
(18:12):
From his football team through high school or junior high
actually elementary school, middle school, and high school. Um, he
was one of the leaders on the field. Um. Like
I said before, he's very loving, very caring. But when
when it came to doing the job that he needed
(18:32):
to do, he got right down to the brass tacks
and and helped build up the marines that he was
in charge of. There was one titular marine. I forgive me,
I can't remember his name, but when he can't, when
this younger marine came into Taylor's unit when he was
(18:55):
a sergeant, he said that that's first Taylor scared to
live and crap out of him because he just stared
down and keeps staring at you until it made it
very uncomfortable. And if he was really mad, that's when
he started yelling. But it's just his demeanor, very calm
(19:22):
under pressure and wanted to build those marines up to
what they were expected to do. And he was given
a lot of training. He was giving a lot of
opportunity to train those marines. And you know what, like
I said, that's that's what he enjoyed. That's what he loved.
(19:44):
It was his passion. It was his absolute passion to
be the best marine that he could be, and I
think he did that. He wound up giving the ultimate
sacrifice that a service member can give and being a marine.
(20:05):
I don't think, as we've talked about it as a family,
we don't think it's tough to say, but we don't
think he would have wanted to go out any other way.
If he had to do it, he would go out
the way he did, with his fellow Marines, both men
and women, right by his side, fighting to the very
(20:29):
end to protect those people, which is honorable in and
of itself, but to do it in the manner in
which he did it and ultimately give up his life
in order to fulfill that duty. Unfortunately, that's the way
it turned out. And right now we can't none of
(20:52):
us can quantify how many potential lives they saved that
day or the following days right after that. But just
like mister Schmidt said, they're all heroes, every last one
of them. And to be disrespected like they were at
(21:14):
Dover when they were coming off the plane with mister
Biden looking as watch each time the each time the
salute was released and the Marines would go back up,
pick up another box and bring it down was disrespectful
(21:35):
as as anything I've ever seen. And I were struggling
with that. We're really struggling with that one. But like
you said, it's all about the boys and the girls,
their heroes. We want to keep them in the forefront,
never to be forgotten. And unfortunately, with war we know
(21:57):
this happens, but you're right when it was preventable, Mark,
I agree. I mean, I don't think there's an American
ownst that doesn't agree that we need to be out
of this got staken country. But it could have happened differently,
and I think our boys and girls would still be
with us today if it hadn't been handled differently. Mark,
(22:18):
we talked so much about your son, and it's such
a grave tragedy. What's happened to all of our marines
in Afghanistan and brave men and women. One of the
things I wanted to discuss with you is the president
his press conference yesterday where he called this withdrawal from
Afghanistan quote a success. What are your thoughts? Honestly, we've
(22:42):
been we've been more concerned about dealing with our son Jared,
and I didn't bother to even watch, so I had
no comment. No, I completely understand that. If I may,
I'd like to actually talk about a foundation that we've
set up for him. Yeah, we'd love to hear more
about that. Please tell us more about that cause well
(23:04):
we'll even put it up on our website and social
media at Hannity dot com. Well, thank you for that
we have partnered with the Saint Louis Hero Network. They
are responsible for raising money for backstoppers, etc. And my family.
We we've been blessed financially, so we don't need any
financial support for our own family. So one hundred percent
(23:27):
of any proceeds raised for Jared's foundation and memorial fund
will actually be applied to exactly that in other good causes.
We are planning on directing a sculpture on his behalf,
either just of him or of the thirteen that's yet
to be determined. We would love to set up a
scholarship in his name. That would be a recurring annual
(23:50):
scholarship that we could award out to a student from
the high school he attended. We'll work those details out
in time as well. But there's other projects that we
would love to since we've been receiving such a huge
overwhelming support for all of this, uh, you know, contribute
money to the Wounded Warriors projects stuff like that on
an annual basis. So we'll be doing fundraisers like this
(24:13):
on an annual basis to raise money and an awareness
for the third team fallen and contribute that money to
a good cause. The website that people can go to
if they feel so blessed to do so, would be
astl Hero network dot com, slash helps a dash Hero. Mark,
(24:37):
I just want to say we lost Jared on Friday.
I can't imagine what you and your family are going through.
As I said, I just want you to know how
incredible it is that you are already willing to give back,
and we're going to link all of this to Hannity
dot Com, will continue to pray for your family. We
just ask that you keep us surprised of everything that's
(24:57):
going on so we can help. America can help, the
audience can help. Well. We want to do whatever we
can to help you and your family. I appreciate that,
and we just want to make a legacy for him
and the people that have been reaching out and being
so supportive. We're going to help make that happen. So
from the bottom of our hearts, were so very thankful.
Thank you, Mark. We appreciate your time. We'll be thinking
(25:20):
about you and your family. You have a lot of
tough days ahead. God bless you. Thank you and Darren.
You know, we really haven't gotten political in this conversation,
but I did want to get your thoughts on the
presser from yesterday and President Biden calling this withdrawal from
Afghanistan that extraordinary success with the loss of your son,
(25:41):
Marine Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover, I don't think anyone can
call this a success. I wanted to get your take
on this. No, absolutely not. Yeah, it not only was
it not the perfect takeout, it was anything but it
was everything was backwards. Um, you know, to say that
(26:07):
that was a perfect deal, No, how could it be perfect.
There's thirteen live lost. There's thirteen lives lost, one of
one of them being my son. But he stood his ground,
He did what he needed to do, what he was
told to do, what he wanted to be there doing.
Like I said the other night, it was his passion,
(26:28):
and he died with his brothers and sisters fighting for
those people that couldn't fight for themselves. But no, this
is this was anything but perfect. There's I don't in
my opinion, and I know it's just my opinion, but
(26:48):
this was anything but perfect. This was a disaster and
it didn't need to happen, right. I think that's the
point that all of us feeling, and certainly we're grieving
alongside of you. But can't imagine what you're going through.
And we just want you to know myself, my entire
team here on radio and on TV, our audience, all
(27:11):
of us are thinking about you, trying to honor Taylor's memory.
Is there anything that we can do? Do you guys
have a go fund me, a website, anything that we
can put up on Hannity dot com to keep the
effort alive, to keep Taylor's legacy alive. Actually, thank you
for asking. There is his Marine Buddies from his various
(27:37):
units that he was in, a start to go fund
me page, and there is also a help that he
wrote that was started by the FOP, the Fraternal Order Police.
Hearing you talk. There is a t shirt company out
(27:58):
of you taught as well, that does shirts and sweatshirts
and all kinds of stuff that's called SRVs Gear. It's
service gear and it's geared towards first responders as well
as military members. It's just a way to give back
(28:21):
to those those members that have given the ultimate sacrifice.
And then we were also contacted by Salty Turtle Beer
company from down South and they are making instead of
twelve packs of beer, they're making thirteen packs of beer
(28:44):
for the thirteen members that we lost, and down on
the bottom of the can it has instead of the
expiration date, it has the name and the incident on
the bottom of the can of each one of the
members of the thirteen that's that we're killed in this
(29:04):
in this horrendous attack. That's actually pretty incredible. Look, we're
gonna put all of that on my website, Hannity dot
com today so everyone can go and support not just
these go fundmes, but these companies that are reaching out,
taking the time and honoring the fallen. And that's pretty
incredible of them. We'll let our audience know if there's
(29:27):
anything we can do to help, Please let us know.
And I just want to say thank you for being
with us, and I appreciate that very much. Thank you well.
I wish I had adequate words to communicate to both
of you. I hear the pain in your hearts and
your voice. Both of you described amazing young American heroes,
(29:55):
your sons. I know that you won't see them again.
I do believe in God. I'm a Christian, and you
know that's no greater old love it. The Bible says, then,
for one to lay down as his or her life
or another. Your two sons did that for this country
(30:17):
and for all of us, and many lives were saved
because of it. I'm so sorry about all the pain
that you have endured and you will endure in the days, weeks, months,
and frankly probably years ahead. And i want you to
know that this audience cares, and thank you for sharing
the story about these amazing young men that you've raised.
(30:40):
Thank you very much, sir, all right, eight hundred nine
four one Sean, I'm gonna take a break, then I'll
come back and get to the fols.
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